Design of Blue Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescent Emitter with Efficient Exciton Gathering Property for High-Performance Fully Solution-Processed Hybrid White OLEDs

Exploring Efficient Dual-Phase Emissive Fluorophores with High Mobility by Integrating a Rigid Donor and Flexible Acceptor

Developing luminogens with a high emission efficiency in both single-molecule and aggregate states, as well as high mobility, shows promise for advancing the iteration and update of organic optoelectronic materials. However, achieving a delicate balance between the plane configuration of luminophores and the strong exciton interactions of aggregates is a formidable task from the molecular design perspective. This dilemma was overcome by integrating a rigid donor and flexible acceptor to establish donor-acceptor (D-A) type emitters. The π-conjugate-extended donor ensures the substantial planarity of these molecules, allowing strong emission in solution with photoluminescence quantum yield values of 86% and 75%. Furthermore, the restricted molecular motion of the aggregation-induced emission moiety and the formation of J-aggregates reduce the quenching effect, leading to a high emissive efficiency of 85% and 91% in the aggregate state. The mildly distorted D-A geometry builds moderate electrostatic interaction, resulting in high mobility with μM,h of 7.12 × 10-5 and 3.27 × 10-4 cm2/V s. Additionally, an improved synthesized procedure for terminal E-configured acrylonitrile with metal-free and concise reaction conditions is presented. The successful application of the synthesized compounds in organic light-emitting diode devices demonstrates the practicability of the molecular design strategy with connecting a rigid donor and flexible acceptor.

A Review: Blue Fluorescent Zinc (II) Complexes for OLEDs-A Last Five-Year Recap

Blue emissions in organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) are essential for their application in solid-state lighting and full-colour flat panel displays. On the other hand, high-power blue emitters are still uncommon, especially those that can achieve the Commission Internationale de l'Eclairage (CIE, X, Y) coordinates of (0.14, 0.08) in the National Television System Committee (NTSC) blue standard and have high external quantum efficiencies (EQE) of more than 5% because their molecular design presents an enormous challenge. Therefore, creating effective, stable, pure, and deep blue fluorescent materials is vital. Here, it is addressed how useful blue fluorescent Zn (II) complexes are for making organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). Utilizing Zn (II) complexes is appealing because of their favourable luminous characteristics, acceptance and mobility, and affordability. This mini-review article aims to provide an overview of Zn (II) complexes that emit blue fluorescent light and have been reported since 2018, while highlighting the unique qualities that make them appropriate OLED materials.

Creation of Dual Thermally Activated Delayed-Fluorescence Exciplexes in a Bulk Emitting Layer and Its Interface with an Electron Transport Layer for Promoting the Performance of Thermally Activated Delayed-Fluorescence Organic Light-Emitting Diodes Fabricated by a Solution Process

An exciplex, which is composed of electron donor and acceptor molecules and formed by intermolecular charge transfer, is an excited-state species that is able to emit light or transfer its energy to a lower-energy emitter. In reported exciplex-based organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs), their working mechanism is to generate exciplexes either in the bulk emitting layer (bulk exciplex) or at its interface with an electron transport layer (interface exciplex); both types give promising device performance. Here, we propose a novel strategy of creating both types of exciplexes simultaneously (dual exciplexes) for the generation of more exciplexes for better device performance as indicated in the improved photoluminescence quantum yield (PLQY). Impressively, the dual exciplex-based device with blue thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) emitter 9,9-dimethyl-9,10-dihydroacridine-2,4,6-triphenyl-1,3,5-triazine (DMAC-TRZ) exhibits a record-high maximum external quantum efficiency (EQE_max) of 26.7% among the solution-processed TADF blue OLEDs. By further doping with the red-emitting phosphor emitter into the EML, the white device also gives a record-high EQE_max of 24.1% among the solution-processed TADF-phosphor hybrid white OLEDs (T-P WOLEDs) with the Commission Internationale de L'Eclairage (CIE) coordinates of (0.34, 0.42), color rendering index of 70, and correlated color temperature of 5198 K. Furthermore, both blue and white devices show an ultralow efficiency roll-off with external quantum efficiencies at a practical brightness value of 1000 cd m^-2 (EQE₁₀₀₀) of 25.1 and 23.9%, respectively. This is the first report of employing a dual exciplex-based OLED with excellent device performance.

Poly(acridan-grafted biphenyl germanium) with High Triplet Energy as a Universal Host for High-Efficiency Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescence Full-Color Devices and Their Hybrid with Phosphor for White Light Electroluminescence

Developing an effective host for highly efficient full-color electroluminescence devices through a solution-process is still a challenge at present. Here, we use the σ-π conjugated polymer, poly(acridan grafted biphenyl germanium) P(DMAC-Ge), having the highest triplet energy (E_T) 2.86 eV among conjugated polymers as the host in sky-blue phosphorescence, TADFs (blue (B), green (G), and red (R)), and hybrid white (W) PLEDs. Upon doping with a sky-blue phosphor-emitter (Firpic), the resulting device gives the high EQE_max 19.7% with B_max 24,918 cd/m². The Ge-containing polymer backbone can provide as a channel for electron transport and charge trap into the guest as manifested by the electroluminescence dynamics. Further introducing the bipolar material DCzPPy as cohost, the devices with a sky-blue phosphor (Firpic) and each of the TADF-guests─B (DMAC-TRZ), G (DACT-II), and R (TPA-DCPP) in the EML─achieve the high maximum EQEs as 19.7%, 19.4%, 21.5% and 3.82% with the emission peaks at 470, 485, 508, and 630 nm, respectively. As the three guests (DMAC-TRZ, Ir-O, Ir-R) are doped together into the emitting layer, we obtain a TADF-phosphor (T-P) hybrid white PLED giving a record-high EQE 22.5% among the solution processed hybrid OLED with CIE (0.34, 0.40) and B_max 28,945 cd/m². These results manifest that P(DMAC-Ge) is a potential polymer host for full-color TADF and hybrid white light PLEDs with high performance.

Recent progress on organic light-emitting diodes with phosphorescent ultrathin (<1nm) light-emitting layers

In recent years, phosphorescent dyes forming ultrathin light-emitting layers (<1 nm, UEMLs) have been widely applied to fabricate monochromatic and white organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) owing to its merits of simplified device structure and preparation process, more flexible design, lower material consumption, and complete exciton utilization. In addition, it was demonstrated that the OLEDs with UEMLs achieved high electroluminescence performance comparable to the conventional doping-based devices. Structurally, OLEDs were structured with phosphorescent UEMLs inserted into nonluminous materials, heterojunction interface as well as into luminescent materials including phosphorescent, conventional fluorescent, thermally activated delayed fluorescence, and exciplex emitters. We carefully reviewed the successful applications of UEMLs in OLEDs and underlying working mechanism of corresponding devices, and also emphasized the representative achievements about OLEDs with UEMLs, aimed at forming a comprehensive summary of the present research for UEMLs-based OLEDs. In the end, we also gave an outlook for the future development of UEMLs-based OLEDs

Design and synthesis of yellow- to red-emitting gold(III) complexes containing isomeric thienopyridine and thienoquinoline moieties and their applications in operationally stable organic light-emitting devices

A new class of yellow- to red-emitting carbazolylgold(III) complexes containing isomeric thienopyridine or thienoquinoline moieties in the cyclometalating ligand has been designed and synthesized, which showed high photoluminescence quantum yields of over 80% in solid-state thin films. The isomeric effect and extended π-conjugation of the N-heterocycles have been found to remarkably perturb the photophysical, electrochemical and electroluminescence properties of the gold(III) complexes. In particular, the operational lifetimes of organic light-emitting devices based on that incorporated with thieno[2,3-c]pyridine are almost three orders of magnitude longer than that incorporated with thieno[3,2-c]pyridine. This has led to long device operational stability with a LT₇₀ value of up to 63 200 h at a luminance of 100 cd m^-2 and a long half-lifetime of 206 800 h, as well as maximum external quantum efficiencies of up to 8.6% and 14.5% in the solution-processed and vacuum-deposited devices, respectively. This work provides insights into the development of robust and highly luminescent gold(III) complexes and the identification of stable molecular motifs for designing efficient emitters.

Recent progress in thermally activated delayed fluorescence emitters for nondoped organic light-emitting diodes

Nondoped organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) have drawn immense attention due to their merits of process simplicity, reduced fabrication cost, etc. To realize high-performance nondoped OLEDs, all electrogenerated excitons should be fully utilized. The thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) mechanism can theoretically realize 100% internal quantum efficiency (IQE) through an effective upconversion process from nonradiative triplet excitons to radiative singlet ones. Nevertheless, exciton quenching, especially related to triplet excitons, is generally very serious in TADF-based nondoped OLEDs, significantly hindering the pace of development. Enormous efforts have been devoted to alleviating the annoying exciton quenching process, and a number of TADF materials for highly efficient nondoped devices have been reported. In this review, we mainly discuss the mechanism, exciton leaking channels, and reported molecular design strategies of TADF emitters for nondoped devices. We further classify their molecular structures depending on the functional A groups and offer an outlook on their future prospects. It is anticipated that this review can entice researchers to recognize the importance of TADF-based nondoped OLEDs and provide a possible guide for their future development.

The mechanism, exciton leaking channels, and reported molecular design strategies of TADF emitters for high-performance nondoped OLEDs are summarized. Their molecular structures depending on the functional A groups are further classified.

Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescence of Carbazole-Benzophenone Dendrimer with Bulky Substituents

Carbazole dendrimers with benzophenone core and bulky terminal substituents were synthesized, and thermally-activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) property was investigated. The adamantane (Ad) substituted dendrimer showed green TADF emission with PLQY...

Highly Efficient Quasi-2D Perovskite Light-Emitting Diodes Incorporating a TADF Dendrimer as an Exciton-Retrieving Additive

Although small organics or polymer additives have been introduced to enhance film formation and radiative recombination of perovskite light-emitting diodes (PeLEDs), the exciton utilization and quantum efficiency need further optimization. Here, we introduce a thermal-activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) dendrimer as an additive to enhance the surface coverage and reduce the trap state of the grain boundary. More importantly, the TADF nature of such an additive can retrieve the exciton dissociated from perovskite or trapped by the grain boundary and then transfer the energy back to emissive perovskite through the Förster energy transfer process. Since the triplets can be reused by reverse intersystem crossing in such a TADF additive, the theoretical exciton utilization is 100%. As a result, the optimized PeLEDs cooperating with a TADF additive achieved a high current efficiency of 39.0 cd A^-1 and an ultrabright luminescence of 18,000 cd m^-2, which are almost 5 times higher than those of the control device without an additive. Moreover, the device stability monitored by half-lifetime at 1000 cd m^-2 enhanced 2 times after introducing the TADF dendrimer as an additive. The parent dendrimer without a TADF feature was also synthesized as an additive to explore the mechanism action, which found that 54% enhancement of device efficiency can be attributed to defect passivating, while 46% was assigned to retrieved energy. This research first demonstrates that the TADF dendrimer is a promising exciton-retrieving additive for enhancing the performance of PeLEDs by passivating defect, filling up grain boundary, and retrieving leakage exciton.

π-Stacked Donor-Acceptor Dendrimers for Highly Efficient White Electroluminescence

π-Stacked dendrimers consisting of cofacially aligned donors and acceptors are developed by introducing three dendritic teracridan donors with orthogonal configuration and three triazine acceptors in periphery of hexaphenylbenzene skeleton. The dendritic structure and orthogonal configuration of teracridan not only make their outer acridan segments approaching to acceptor in close distance, but also fix donor and acceptor in face-to-face alignment, leading to through-space charge transfer emission with thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) effect. By regulating charge transfer strength via substituent effect of acceptor, emission color of the dendrimers can be tuned from blue to yellow/red region. Solution-processed two-color white organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) based on blue and yellow π-stacked donor-acceptor dendrimers exhibit the maximum external quantum efficiency of 20.6 % and maximum power efficiency of 58.9 lm W^-1 , representing the state-of-the-art efficiency for all-TADF white OLEDs by solution process.

Efficient white light-emitting polymers from dual thermally activated delayed fluorescence chromophores for non-doped solution processed white electroluminescent devices

Conjugated TADF copolymers comprised of two TADF molecules linked with carbazole exhibited stable pure white emission from non-doped OLEDs with CIE coordinates (0.32, 0.35), a maximum luminance efficiency of 9.13 cd A⁻¹, and a maximum EQE of 4.17%.

Efficient Exciplex-based Green and Near-Infrared Organic Light-Emitting Diodes Employing a Novel Donor-Acceptor Type Donor

Widely investigated thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) can be achieved by intramolecular and intermolecular charge transfer between an electron donor and electron acceptor which corresponds to a TADF material and exciplex, respectively. However, the development of efficient organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) based on an exciplex lags far behind the development of those based on efficient TADF materials. In this work, a novel D-A type electron donor TPAFPO was designed and synthesized. TPAFPO:PO-T2T exhibits a small ΔE_ST of 79 meV and significant delayed emission, demonstrating TADF characteristics. OLEDs based on TPAFPO:PO-T2T exhibit a low turn-on voltage of 2.4 V and high an EQE value of 17.0%. Besides, NIR OLEDs utilizing TPAFPO:PO-T2T as host exhibit a turn-on voltage of 3.0 V and high EQE of 9.2% with a NIR emission peak at 690 nm. Furthermore, solution-processed exciplex and NIR devices also can maintain high efficiencies of 15.1% and 8.1%, respectively.