Achieving Nearly 30% External Quantum Efficiency for Orange-Red Organic Light Emitting Diodes by Employing Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescence Emitters Composed of 1,8-Naphthalimide-Acridine Hybrids.

Zeng, Weixuan; Lai, Hsin-Yu; Lee, Wei-Kai; Jiao, Min; Shiu, Yi-Jiun; Zhong, Cheng; Gong, Shaolong; Zhou, Tao et al. · Adv Mater · 2018

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

The combination of rigid acridine donor and 1,8-naphthalimide acceptor has afforded two orange-red emitters of NAI-DMAC and NAI-DPAC with high rigidity in molecular structure and strongly pretwisted charge transfer state. Endowed with high photoluminescence quantum yields (Φ<sub>PL</sub> ), distinct thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) characteristics, and preferentially horizontal emitting dipole orientations, these emitters afford record-high orange-red TADF organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) with external quantum efficiencies of up to 21-29.2%, significantly surpassing all previously reported orange-to-red TADF OLEDs. Notably, the influence of microcavity effect is verified to support the record-high efficiency. This finding relaxes the usually stringent material requirements for effective TADF emitters by comprising smaller radiative transition rates and less than ideal Φ<sub>PL</sub> s.