The discovery and utilization of metal-free organic emitters with thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) is a huge breakthrough toward high-performance and low-cost organic light-emitting diodes. Time-dependent second-order perturbation theory including spin−orbit and nonadiabatic couplings, combined with time-dependent density functional theory, is employed to reveal the nature of highly efficient TADF in pure organic emitters. Our results demonstrate that except energy gaps between the lowest singlet (S 1 ) and triplet (T 1 ) excited states the nonadiabatic effect between low-lying excited states should play a key role in the T 1 → S 1 upconversion for TADF emitters, especially donor−acceptor−donor (D−A−D) molecules. We not only clarify the reason why D−A−D molecules with large S 1 −T 1 energy gaps show efficient TADF but also explain the experimental observation that D−A−D-type compounds with S 1 −T 1 gaps close to those of their D−A-shape counterparts display more efficient T 1 → S 1 upconversion.

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The tetrahedral [Cu(phenAr(2))(py)(2)](+) coordination motif (phen = 1,10-phenanthroline; py = pyridine) conceived on the basis of the HETPYP concept (heteroleptic pyridyl and phenanthroline metal complexes) is a versatile dynamic unit for constructing various heteroleptic metallosupramolecular pseudo-1D, 2D, and 3D structures, both in solution and the solid state. The 2,9-diaryl substituted phenanthroline (phenAr(2)) serves as a capping ligand for copper(I) ions, as its bulky nature prevents formation of the homoleptic complex [Cu(phenAr(2))(2)](+). Combination of the dynamic and concave metal ligand building block [Cu(phenAr(2))](+) with various pyridine (py) ligands, such as bi-, tri-, and tetra-pyridines, opened the way to infinite 1D helicates, 2D networks, and discrete 3D hexanuclear cages, whereas spatial integration of both phenAr(2) and py units into a single ligand resulted in the formation of a Borromean-ring-type hexanuclear cage.