Heterocycles with saturated N atoms (HetSNs) are widely
used electron
donors in organic light-emitting diode (OLED) materials. Their relatively
low bond dissociation energy (BDE) of exocyclic C–N bonds has
been closely related to material intrinsic stability and even device
lifetime. Thus, it is imperative to realize fast prediction and precise
regulation of those C–N BDEs, which demands a deep understanding
of the relationship between the molecular structure and BDE. Herein,
via machine learning (ML), we rapidly and accurately predicted C–N
BDEs in various HetSNs and found that five-membered HetSNs (5-HetSNs)
have much higher BDEs than almost all 6-HetSNs, except emerging boron–N
blocks. Thorough analysis disclosed that high aromaticity is the foremost
factor accounting for the high BDE of 5-HetSNs, and introducing intramolecular
hydrogen-bond or electron-withdrawing moieties could also increase
BDE. Importantly, the ML models performed well in various realistic
OLED materials, showing great potential in characterizing material
intrinsic stability for high-throughput virtual-screening and material
design efforts.