A Highly Twisted Carbazole-Fused DABNA Derivative as an Orange-Red TADF Emitter for OLEDs with Nearly 40 % EQE

Angew Chem Int Ed Engl. 2022 Nov 21;61(47):e202212575. doi: 10.1002/anie.202212575. Epub 2022 Oct 20.

Abstract

Multiple resonance (MR) type thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) material is currently a research hotspot in organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) due to their high color purity and high exciton utilization. However, there are only a handful of MR-TADF emitters with emissions beyond the blue-to-green region. The very limited emission colors for MR-TADF emitters are mainly caused by the fact that so far molecular modifications of MR-TADF do not offer much change in the emission colors. Here, we report a new approach to modifying a prototypical MR core of DABNA by fusing carbazoles to the MR framework. The carbazole-fused molecule (TCZ-F-DABNA) basically maintains the MR-dominated features of DABNA while red-shifting the emission. Its OLED achieves an external quantum efficiency of 39.2 % with a peak at 588 nm, which is a record-high efficiency for OLEDs with peaks beyond 560 nm. This work provides a new approach for significantly tunning emission colors of MR-TADF emitters.

Keywords: Carbazole Fusion; Concentration Quenching; Multiple Resonance; Organic Light-Emitting Diodes; Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescence.