No abstract

Aromatic organic deep-blue emitters that exhibit thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) can harvest all excitons in electrically generated singlets and triplets as light emission. However, blue TADF emitters generally have long exciton lifetimes, leading to severe efficiency decrease, i.e., rolloff, at high current density and luminance by exciton annihilations in organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). Here, we report a deep-blue TADF emitter employing simple molecular design, in which an activation energy as well as spin-orbit coupling between excited states with different spin multiplicities, were simultaneously controlled. An extremely fast exciton lifetime of 750 ns was realized in a donor-acceptor-type molecular structure without heavy metal elements. An OLED utilizing this TADF emitter displayed deep-blue electroluminescence (EL) with CIE chromaticity coordinates of (0.14, 0.18) and a high maximum EL quantum efficiency of 20.7%. Further, the high maximum efficiency were retained to be 20.2% and 17.4% even at high luminance.

By simple modification of the functional groups on the donor unit, the thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) properties of emitters can be easily manipulated. A series of deep-blue to blue emissive TADF derivatives has been developed, capable of deep-blue emissions from 403 to 460 nm in toluene. Deep-blue organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) based on this series of TADF emitters have been fabricated, resulting in an electroluminescence peak at 428 nm and a high external quantum efficiency of up to 10.3%.One deep-blue OLED achieved the CIE coordinates of (0.156, 0.063), which is among the best reported TADF performances for deep-blue OLEDs with CIE y < 0.07.

Organic light-emitting diodes utilizing thermally activated delayed fluorescence is a potential solution for achieving stable blue devices. Sky-blue devices (CIEy < 0.4) with high stability and high external quantum efficiency (>15%) at 1000 cd m−2 based on either delayed fluorescence or phosphorescence are still limited and very hard to achieve simultaneously. Here, we report the design and synthesis of a new thermally activated delayed fluorescence emitter, 3Ph2CzCzBN. A sky-blue device based on 3Ph2CzCzBN exhibits a high external quantum efficiency of 16.6% at 1000 cd m−2. The device shows a sky-blue electroluminescence of 482 nm and achieves Commission Internationale de l’ Eclairage coordinates of (0.17, 0.36). The sky-blue device exhibits a superb LT90 of 38 h. This is the first demonstration of high-efficiency and stable sky-blue devices (CIEy < 0.4) based on delayed fluorescence, which represents an important advance in the field of blue organic light-emitting diode technology.

By simple modification of the functional groups on the boron–nitrogen‐containing skeleton, the energy level of the highest occupied molecular orbital (EHOMO) of emitters can be easily adjusted. Blue‐emission derivatives are developed, which are capable of showing small full width at half maximums and high photoluminescence quantum yields. Blue thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF)‐assisted fluorescence organic light‐emitting diodes (TAF‐OLEDs) based on two new emitters as the terminal emitter are fabricated, resulting in high external quantum efficiency (EQE) of up to 21.9%, high color purity, and high brightness (Lmax = 63 777 cd m−2). By analyzing the transient electroluminescence spectra of the TAF‐OLEDs, it is found that a smaller EHOMO difference between TADF‐assistant dopant (TADF‐AD) and terminal emitter efficiently helps to decrease hole trapping inside the emitting layer, hence resulting in a lower efficiency rolloff and a longer operational device lifetime. TAF‐OLEDs based on CzBNCz as a terminal emitter having the closest EHOMO to that of TADF‐AD show a maximum EQE of 21.9% together with a reduced efficiency rolloff (EQEs of 21.2% and 19.8% at 100 and 1000 cd m−2, respectively). This research provides a designing principle for a terminal emitter in TAF‐OLEDs with well‐matched energy levels towards reaching the requirements of commercial displays.