J-Aggregation Enhances the Electroluminescence Performance of a Sky-Blue Thermally Activated Delayed-Fluorescence Emitter in Nondoped Organic Light-Emitting Diodes

The Golden Age of Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescence Materials: Design and Exploitation

Since the seminal report by Adachi and co-workers in 2012, there has been a veritable explosion of interest in the design of thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) compounds, particularly as emitters for organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). With rapid advancements and innovation in materials design, the efficiencies of TADF OLEDs for each of the primary color points as well as for white devices now rival those of state-of-the-art phosphorescent emitters. Beyond electroluminescent devices, TADF compounds have also found increasing utility and applications in numerous related fields, from photocatalysis, to sensing, to imaging and beyond. Following from our previous review in 2017 ( Adv. Mater. 2017, 1605444), we here comprehensively document subsequent advances made in TADF materials design and their uses from 2017-2022. Correlations highlighted between structure and properties as well as detailed comparisons and analyses should assist future TADF materials development. The necessarily broadened breadth and scope of this review attests to the bustling activity in this field. We note that the rapidly expanding and accelerating research activity in TADF material development is indicative of a field that has reached adolescence, with an exciting maturity still yet to come.

Highly Horizontal Oriented Tricomponent Exciplex Host with Multiple Reverse Intersystem Crossing Channels for High-Performance Narrowband Electroluminescence and Eye-Protection White Organic Light-Emitting Diodes

Despite multiple-resonance thermally activated delayed fluorescence (MR-TADF) emitters with small full-width at half maximum are attractive for wide color-gamut display and eye-protection lighting applications, their inefficient reverse intersystem crossing (RISC) process and long exciton lifetime induce serious efficiency roll-off, which significantly limits their development. Herein, a novel device concept of building highly efficient tricomponent exciplex with multiple RISC channels is proposed to realize reduced exciton quenching and enhanced upconversion of nonradiative triplet excitons, and subsequently used as a host for high-performance MR-TADF organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). Compared with traditional binary exciplex, the tricomponent exciplex exhibits obviously improved photoluminescence quantum yield, emitting dipole orientation and RISC rate constant, and a record-breaking external quantum efficiency (EQE) of 30.4% is achieved for tricomponent exciplex p-PhBCzPh: PO-T2T: DspiroAc-TRZ (50: 20: 30) based OLED. Remarkably, maximum EQEs of 36.2% and 40.3% and ultralow efficiency roll-off with EQEs of 26.1% and 30.0% at 1000 cd m-2 are respectively achieved for its sky-blue and pure-green MR-TADF doped OLEDs. Additionally, the blue emission unit hosted by tricomponent exciplex is combined with an orange-red TADF emission unit to achieve a double-emission-layer blue-hazard-free warm white OLED with an EQEmax of 30.3% and stable electroluminescence spectra over a wide brightness range.

Modulation of Intermolecular Interactions in Organic Emitters for Highly Efficient Organic Light-Emitting Diodes

The adverse aggregated-caused quenching (ACQ) problem of most electroluminescent materials existing in highly doped thin films is one of the key factors impeding the commercialization of high-efficiency organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) panel. Whereas, by delicately constructing and modulating moderate intermolecular interactions, some aggregates have been demonstrated to present distinct luminescent properties such as tunable emission spectra, improved photoluminescence quantum yields, different emission mechanism and enhanced horizontal transition dipole ratio (Θ) of emitting layer, providing feasible solution for ACQ problem. The luminescence from newly generated emissive state in aggregates is different from the traditional "isolated" molecules in organic electronics and will possess novel properties and applications. Herein, we summarize the different types of intermolecular interactions within emitter aggregates exhibiting distinct luminescent mechanisms, as well as their effects on photoluminescent and electroluminescent properties, offering reliable reference for the advancement of highly efficient OLEDs utilizing aggregated emitters.

Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescence with Nanosecond Emission Lifetimes and Minor Concentration Quenching: Achieving High-Performance Nondoped and Doped Blue OLEDs

Simultaneously achieving a high photoluminescence quantum yield (PLQY), ultrashort exciton lifetime, and suppressed concentration quenching in thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) materials is desirable yet challenging. Here, a novel acceptor-donor-acceptor type TADF emitter, namely, 2BO-sQA, wherein two oxygen-bridged triarylboron (BO) acceptors are arranged with cofacial alignment and positioned nearly orthogonal to the rigid dispirofluorene-quinolinoacridine (sQA) donor is reported. This molecular design enables the compound to achieve highly efficient (PLQYs up to 99%) and short-lived (nanosecond-scale) blue TADF with effectively suppressed concentration quenching in films. Consequently, the doped organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) base on 2BO-sQA achieve exceptional electroluminescence performance across a broad range of doping concentrations, maintaining maximum external quantum efficiencies (EQEs) at over 30% for doping concentrations ranging from 10 to 70 wt%. Remarkably, the nondoped blue OLED achieves a record-high maximum EQE of 26.6% with a small efficiency roll-off of 14.0% at 1000 candelas per square meter. By using 2BO-sQA as the sensitizer for the multiresonance TADF emitter ν-DABNA, TADF-sensitized fluorescence OLEDs achieve high-efficiency deep-blue emission. These results demonstrate the feasibility of this molecular design in developing TADF emitters with high efficiency, ultrashort exciton lifetime, and minimal concentration quenching.

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.

Status and Challenges of Blue OLEDs: A Review

Organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) have outperformed conventional display technologies in smartphones, smartwatches, tablets, and televisions while gradually growing to cover a sizable fraction of the solid-state lighting industry. Blue emission is a crucial chromatic component for realizing high-quality red, green, blue, and yellow (RGBY) and RGB white display technologies and solid-state lighting sources. For consumer products with desirable lifetimes and efficiency, deep blue emissions with much higher power efficiency and operation time are necessary prerequisites. This article reviews over 700 papers covering various factors, namely, the crucial role of blue emission for full-color displays and solid-state lighting, the performance status of blue OLEDs, and the systematic development of fluorescent, phosphorescent, and thermally activated delayed fluorescence blue emitters. In addition, various challenges concerning deep blue efficiency, lifetime, and approaches to realizing deeper blue emission and higher efficacy for blue OLED devices are also described.

Progresses and Perspectives of Near-Infrared Emission Materials with "Heavy Metal-Free" Organic Compounds for Electroluminescence

Organic/polymer light-emitting diodes (OLEDs/PLEDs) have attracted a rising number of investigations due to their promising applications for high-resolution fullcolor displays and energy-saving solid-state lightings. Near-infrared (NIR) emitting dyes have gained increasing attention for their potential applications in electroluminescence and optical imaging in optical tele-communication platforms, sensing and medical diagnosis in recent decades. And a growing number of people focus on the "heavy metal-free" NIR electroluminescent materials to gain more design freedom with cost advantage. This review presents recent progresses in conjugated polymers and organic molecules for OLEDs/PLEDs according to their different luminous mechanism and constructing systems. The relationships between the organic fluorophores structures and electroluminescence properties are the main focus of this review. Finally, the approaches to enhance the performance of NIR OLEDs/PLEDs are described briefly. We hope that this review could provide a new perspective for NIR materials and inspire breakthroughs in fundamental research and applications.

All-fluorescence white organic light-emitting diodes with record-beating power efficiencies over 130 lm W‒1 and small roll-offs

Improving power efficiency (PE) and reducing roll-off are of significant importance for the commercialization of white organic light-emitting diodes (WOLEDs) in consideration of energy conservation. Herein, record-beating PE of 130.7 lm W⁻¹ and outstanding external quantum efficiency (EQE) of 31.1% are achieved in all-fluorescence two-color WOLEDs based on a simple sandwich configuration of emitting layer consisting of sky-blue and orange delayed fluorescence materials. By introducing a red fluorescence dopant, all-fluorescence three-color WOLEDs with high color rendering index are constructed based on an interlayer sensitization configuration, furnishing ultrahigh PE of 110.7 lm W⁻¹ and EQE of 30.8%. More importantly, both two-color and three-color WOLEDs maintain excellent PEs at operating luminance with smaller roll-offs than the reported state-of-the-art WOLEDs, and further device optimization realizes outstanding comprehensive performances of low driving voltages, large luminance, high PEs and long operational lifetimes. The underlying mechanisms of the impressive device performances are elucidated by host-tuning effect and electron-trapping effect, providing useful guidance for the development of energy-conserving all-fluorescence WOLEDs.

High power efficiency and low roll-off values are essential to the commercialization of white organic light-emitting diodes. Here, the authors construct all-fluorescence devices with an orange emitting layer sandwiched between two sky-blue emitting layers, achieving figure-of-merit of 130.7 lm/W.

Novel Polycyclic Fused Amide Derivatives: Properties and Applications for Sky-blue Electroluminescent Devices

Aromatic imide derivatives play a critical role in boosting the electroluminescent (EL) performance of organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). However, the majority of aromatic imide-based materials are limited to long wavelength emission OLEDs rather than blue emissions due to their strong electron-withdrawing characteristics. Herein, two novel polycyclic fused amide units were reported as electron acceptor to be combined with either a tetramethylcarbazole or acridine donor via a phenyl linker to generate four conventional fluorescence blue emitters of BBI-4MeCz, BBI-DMAC, BSQ-4MeCz and BSQ-DMAC for the first time. BSQ-4MeCz and BSQ-DMAC based on a BSQ unit exhibited higher thermal stability and photoluminescence quantum yields than BBI-4MeCz and BBI-DMAC based on a BBI unit due to their more planar acceptor structure. The intermolecular interactions that exist in the BSQ series materials effectively inhibit the molecular rotation and configuration relaxation, and thus allow for blue-shifted emissions. Blue OLED devices were constructed with the developed materials as emitters, and the effects of both the structure of the polycyclic fused amide acceptor and the electron donor on the EL performance were clarified. Consequently, a sky-blue OLED device based on BSQ-DMAC was created, with a high maximum external quantum efficiency of 4.94% and a maximum luminance of 7761 cd m⁻².

"H-Type" Like Constructed Dimer: Another Way to Enhance the Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescence Effect

Thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) materials are an essential part of TADF-based organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). All the reported methods to improve the performance of TADF materials were focused on achieving a high reverse intersystem crossing rate (k_RISC) and oscillator strength (f), but most of them were studies on single molecular states. In this paper, we have discovered a new dimer architecture called the "H-type" like dimer and proved that the "H-type" like dimer is another way to improve the performance of TADF materials by calculation and experiment. The calculated energy levels of excited states only provided 1.72-5.46% relative errors (RE) compare with the measured values, which indicated that the methods we chose were suitable for predicting the properties. The intermolecular interactions of the "H-type" like dimer endow it with much larger f and k_RISC properties than monomer states, proving that the "H-type" like dimer could improve the performance of TADF emitters.

Boosting external quantum efficiency to 38.6% of sky-blue delayed fluorescence molecules by optimizing horizontal dipole orientation

To achieve high electroluminescence efficiency, great efforts are devoted to enhancing photoluminescence quantum yield (Φ_PL) and exciton utilization of luminescent molecule, while another important factor, light out-coupling efficiency (η_out), receives less attention in molecule design. Here, we focus on horizontal dipole orientation engineering of the molecule to increase η_out and external quantum efficiency (η_ext). A series of tailor-made luminescent molecules consisting of an electron-accepting carbonyl core plus double electron-donating groups of spiro[acridine-9,9′-fluorene] and carbazole derivatives [e.g., 1,3,5-tri(carbazol-9-yl)benzene] are developed and systematically investigated. These molecules hold distinguished merits of strong sky-blue delayed fluorescence with excellent Φ_PL values, large horizontal dipole ratios, and balanced bipolar carrier transport, which furnish record-high η_ext values of up to 26.1 and 38.6% in nondoped and doped sky-blue organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs), respectively. Moreover, the state-of-the-art nondoped hybrid white OLED and all-fluorescence single-emitting layer white OLED are also realized, demonstrating great potentials in OLED industry of these molecules.

High-Efficiency Solution-Processable OLEDs by Employing Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescence Emitters with Multiple Conversion Channels of Triplet Excitons

The state-of-the-art luminescent materials are gained widely by utilizing thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) mechanism. However, the feasible molecular designing strategy of fully exploiting triplet excitons to enhance TADF properties is still in demand. Herein, TADF emitters with multiple conversion channels of triplet excitons are designed by concisely halogenating the electron acceptors containing carbonyl moiety. Compared with the chlorinated and brominated analogues, the fluorinated emitter exhibits distinguishing molecular stacking structures, participating in the formation of trimers through integrating CH···F and C═O···H hydrogen bonds together. It is also demonstrated that the multiple channels can be involved synergistically to accelerate the spin-flip of triplet excitons, and to take charge of the relatively superior reverse intersystem crossing constant rate of 6.20 × 105 s-1 , and thus excellent photoluminescence quantum yields over 90% can easily be achieved. Then the solution-processable organic light emitting diode based on fluorinated emitter can achieve a record-high external quantum efficiency value of 27.13% and relatively low efficiency roll-off with remaining 24.74% at 1000 cd m-2 . This result manifests the significance of enhancing photophysical properties through constructing multiple conversion channels of triplets excitons for high-efficiency TADF emitters and provides a guideline for the future study.

Asymmetric Spirobiacridine-based Delayed Fluorescence Emitters for High-performance Organic Light-Emitting Devices

Recently, researchers have focused on thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) for efficient future lighting and displays. Among TADF emitters, a combination of triazine and acridine is a promising candidate for realizing high-efficiency organic light-emitting devices (OLEDs). However, simultaneous development of perfect horizontal orientation (Θ=100 %) and an external quantum efficiency (EQE) of over 40 % is still challenging. Here, to obtain insights for further improvements of a triazine/acridine combination, various asymmetric spirobiacridine (SBA)-based TADF emitters with a unity photoluminescence quantum yield and high Θ ratio of over 80 % were developed. Furthermore, the substitution effects of the triazine acceptor unit on the photophysical properties were studied, including molecular orientations and OLED performance. The corresponding OLED exhibited sky-blue emission with a high EQE of over 30 %.

Tetrabenzo[a,c]phenazine Backbone for Highly Efficient Orange-Red Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescence with Completely Horizontal Molecular Orientation

Three thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) molecules, namely PQ1, PQ2, and PQ3, are composed of electron-accepting (A) tetrabenzo[a,c]phenazine (TBPZ) and electron-donating (D) phenoxazine (PXZ) units are designed and characterized. The combined effects of planar acceptor manipulation and high steric hindrance between D and A units endow high molecular rigidity that suppresses nonradiative decay of the excitons with improved photoluminescence quantum yields (PLQYs). Particularly, the well-aligned excited states involving a singlet and a triplet charge-transfer excited states and a localized excited triplet state in PQ3 enhances the reverse intersystem crossing rate constant (k_RISC ) with a short delay lifetime (τ_d ). The orange-red OLED based on PQ3 displays a maximum external EL quantum efficiency (EQE) of 27.4 % with a well-suppressed EL efficiency roll-off owing to a completely horizontal orientation of the transition dipole moment in the film state.

Fluorescence Quenching in J-Aggregates through the Formation of Unusual Metastable Dimers

Molecular aggregation alters the optical properties of a system as fluorescence may be activated or quenched. This is usually described within the well-established framework of H- and J-aggregates. While H-aggregates show nonfluorescent blueshifted absorption bands with respect to the isolated monomer, J-aggregates are fluorescent displaying a redshifted peak. In this publication, we employ a combined approach of experiment and theory to study the complex aggregation features and photophysical properties of diaminodicyanoquinone derivatives, which show unusual and puzzling nonfluorescent redshifted absorption bands upon aggregation. Our theoretical analysis demonstrates that stable aggregates do not account for the experimental observations. Instead, we propose an unprecedented mechanism involving metastable dimeric species formed from stable dimers to generate nonfluorescent J-aggregates. These results represent a novel kind of aggregation-induced optical effect and may have broad implications for the photophysics of dye aggregates.

A TADF Emitter Featuring Linearly Arranged Spiro-Donor and Spiro-Acceptor Groups: Efficient Nondoped and Doped Deep-Blue OLEDs with CIEy <0.1

Reported herein is a molecular design strategy of deep-blue emitters for resolving the lack of highly efficient deep-blue organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) featuring CIE_y (Commission Internationale de l'Eclairage) color coordinates matching the display requirements (<0.1). The strategy is to combine weak spiro-donor and spiro-acceptor groups into a linear donor-π-acceptor type of thermally-activated delayed fluorescence molecule through a sterically bulky π-spacer. The strategy endows an emitter with deep-blue emission, a narrower emission bandwidth (51 nm in toluene), a high photoluminescence quantum yield (0.95 in toluene), weak concentration quenching, and efficient triplet-exciton utilization, which are all attractive characteristics for emitters of deep-blue OLEDs with lower CIE_y coordinates. Owing to the rational design, the emitter has realized not only highly efficient doped deep-blue OLEDs with external quantum efficiencies (EQEs) up to 25.4 % and CIE_y less than 0.1 but also so far the most efficient nondoped deep-blue OLED (EQE up to 22.5 %) with CIE_y less than 0.1.

Spiral Donor Design Strategy for Blue Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescence Emitters

Thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) emitters with a spiral donor show tremendous potential toward high-level efficient blue organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). However, the underlying design strategy of the spiral donor used for blue TADF emitters remains unclear. As a consequence, researchers often do "try and error" work in the development of new functional spiral donor fragments, making it slow and inefficient. Herein, we demonstrate that the energy level relationships between the spiral donor and the luminophore lead to a significant effect on the photoluminescent quantum yields (PLQYs) of the target materials. In addition, a method involving quantum chemistry simulations that can accurately predict the aforementioned energy level relationships by simulating the spin density distributions of the triplet excited states of the spiral donor and corresponding TADF emitters and the triplet excited natural transition orbitals of the TADF emitters is established. Moreover, it also revealed that the steric hindrance in this series of molecules can form a nearly unchanged singlet (S₁) state geometry, leading to a reduced nonradiative decay and high PLQY, while a moderated donor-acceptor (D-A) torsion in the triplet (T₁) state can induce a strong vibronic coupling between the charge-transfer triplet (³CT) state and the local triplet (³LE) state, achieving an effective reverse intersystem crossing (RISC) process. Furthermore, an electric-magnetic coupling is formed between the high-lying ³LE state and the charge-transfer singlet (¹CT) state, which may open another RISC channel. Remarkably, in company with the optimized molecular structure and energy alignment, the pivotal TADF emitter DspiroS-TRZ achieved 99.9% PLQY, an external quantum efficiency (EQE) of 38.4%, which is the highest among all blue TADF emitters reported to date.

Asymmetric Host Molecule Bearing Pyridine Core for Highly Efficient Blue Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescence OLEDs

In this study, two host materials, pCzBzbCz and pCzPybCz, are synthesized to achieve a high efficiency and long lifetime of blue thermally activated delayed fluorescence organic light-emitting diodes (TADF-OLEDs). The molecular design strategy involves the introduction of a pyridine group into the core structure of pCzPybCz as an electron-withdrawing unit, and an electron-donating phenyl group into the structure of pCzBzbCz. These host materials demonstrate good thermal stability and high triplet energy (T₁ =3.07 eV for pCzBzbCz and 3.06 eV for pCzPybCz) for the fabrication of blue TADF-OLEDs. In particular, pCzPybCz-based OLED devices demonstrate an external quantum efficiency (EQE) of 22.7 % and an operational lifetime of 24 h (LT₉₀ , time to attain 90 % of initial luminance) at an initial luminance of 1000 cd m^-2 . This superior lifetime could be explained by the C-N bond dissociation energy (BDE) in the host molecular structure. Furthermore, a mixed-host system using the electron-deficient 2,4-bis(dibenzo[b,d]furan-2-yl)-6-phenyl-1,3,5-triazine (DDBFT) is proposed to inhibit the formation of the anion state of our host materials. In short, the device operational lifetime is further improved by applying DDBFT. The carbazole-based asymmetric host molecule containing a pyridine core realizes a high-efficiency blue TADF-OLED showing a positive effect on the operating lifetime, and can provide useful strategies for designing new host materials.