An Ultraviolet Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescence OLED with Total External Quantum Efficiency over 9.

Luo, Yanju; Li, Shuaibing; Zhao, Yihuan; Li, Chuan; Pang, Zhenguo; Huang, Yan; Yang, Minghui; Zhou, Liang et al. · Adv Mater · 2020

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

Owing to the difficulty in acquiring compounds with combined high energy bandgaps and lower-lying intramolecular charge-transfer excited states, the development of ultraviolet (UV) thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) materials is quite challenging. Herein, through interlocking of the diphenylsulfone (PS) acceptor unit of a reported deep-blue TADF emitter (CZ-PS) by a dimethylmethylene bridge, CZ-MPS, a UV-emissive TADF compound bearing a shallower LUMO energy level and a more rigid structure than those of CZ-PS is achieved. This represents the first example of a UV-emissive TADF compound. Organic light-emitting diode (OLED) using CZ-MPS as the guest material can emit efficient UV light with emission maximum of 389 nm and maximum total external quantum efficiency (EQE<sub>max</sub> ) of 9.3%. Note that this EQE<sub>max</sub> value is twice as high as the current record EQE<sub>max</sub> (4.6%) for UV-OLEDs. This finding may shed light on the molecular design strategy for high-performance UV-OLED materials.