Rational Molecular Design of Dibenzo[<i>a</i>,<i>c</i>]phenazine-Based Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescence Emitters for Orange-Red OLEDs with EQE up to 22.0%

Abstract

The design and synthesis of highly efficient thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) emitters with an electroluminescence wavelength beyond 600 nm remains a great challenge for organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). To solve this issue, three TADF molecules, <i>x</i>DMAC-BP (<i>x</i> = 1, 2, 3), are developed in combination with the rigid planar dibenzo[<i>a</i>,<i>c</i>]phenazine (BP) acceptor core and different numbers of 9,9-dimethylacridan (DMAC) donors. All these emitters possess stable internal charge transfer and a large dihedral angle between the donors and planar BP core. The emission wavelength can be regulated from 541 to 605 nm by increasing the number of the donor DMAC units because of the controllable tuning of the intramolecular charge transfer effect and the molecular geometrical structure. The photoluminescence quantum yields of these emitters are improved from 42 to 89% with the increase in the number of DMAC units. The orange-red OLEDs employing the <i>x</i>DMAC-BP emitters exhibit maximum external quantum efficiency (EQE) of 22.0% at 606 nm, which is the highest EQE of the previously reported TADF OLEDs exceeding 600 nm.