Wide-range color-tunable polycyclo-heteraborin multi-resonance emitters containing B–N covalent bonds

Abstract

Boron- and nitrogen (BN)-fused polycyclic aromatic frameworks with amine-directed formation of B-N covalent bonds have the potential to form a new family of facile-synthesis multi-resonance luminophores, which, however, still face imperative challenges in diversifying the molecular design to narrow the emission bandwidth and tune the emission colors. Here, we demonstrate a strategic implementation of B-N bond containing polycyclo-heteraborin multi-resonance emitters with wide-range colors from deep-blue to yellow-green (442-552 nm), small full-width at half-maxima of only 19-28 nm and high photoluminescence efficiencies, by stepwise modifying the basic <i>para</i> B-π-B structures with heteroatoms. The corresponding electroluminescent devices show superior maximum external quantum efficiencies with an exceptional low-efficiency roll-off, retaining 21.0%, 23.6% and 22.1% for the sky-blue, green and yellow-green devices at a high luminance of 5000 cd m^-2, respectively.