Theoretical perspective for substitution effect on luminescent properties of through space charge transfer-based thermally activated delayed fluorescence molecules

Recently, through space charge transfer (TSCT)-based thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) molecules have shown advantages in achieving high efficiencies and tunable emissions. However, the relationships between basic molecular structures and luminescent properties are unclear. Theoretical investigations to reveal the substitution effects with different numbers and positions on excited-state properties are highly desired. Herein, by taking TSCT-based TADF molecules S-CNDF-S-tCz, S-CNDF-D-tCz and T-CNDF-T-tCz as skeletons, a series of promising TADF molecules are designed by adopting ortho, meta and para substitutions with different numbers and positions. Photophysical properties of total 16 molecules are theoretically studied by density functional theory (DFT) and time-dependent density functional theory (TD-DFT) methods in chloroform combined with polarizable continuum model. Results indicate that molecules with ortho-substitution possess small geometric changes and short Donor-Acceptor distances which are induced by the intramolecular van der Waals interactions. Decreased non-radiative consumption and increased TSCT ratio and therefore excellent performance for them can be expected. For molecules with large substitution numbers, twist structures facilitate them to realize small adiabatic energy gaps between the lowest singlet excited state (S₁) and the lowest triplet excited state (T₁), this designing strategy is consistent with the TADF dendrimers. Thus, the relationships between molecular structures and luminescent properties are revealed and promising TSCT-based TADF molecules with high efficiencies are theoretically proposed. Our investigations provide theoretical perspectives for inner mechanisms of substitution effect, which could further afford meaningful guidance to design new efficient TSCT-based TADF molecules.