Nonplanar structure accelerates reverse intersystem crossing of TADF emitters: nearly 40% EQE and relieved efficiency roll off


Exploring strategies to enhance reverse intersystem crossing (RISC) is of great significance to develop efficient thermally activated delayed fluorescent (TADF) molecules. In this study, we investigate the substantial impact of nonplanar structure on improving the rate of RISC (kRISC). Three emitters based on spiroacridine donors are developed to evaluated such hypothesis. All molecules exhibit high photoluminescent quantun yields (PLQYs) of 96-98% due to their rigid donor and acceptor. Leveraging the synergistic effects of heavy element effect and nonplanar geometry, S2-TRZ exhibits an accelerated kRISC of 24.2 × 106 s-1 compared 1.11× 106 s-1 of S1-TRZ, which solely incorporates heavy atoms. Additionally, O1-TRZ possesses a further lower kRISC of 9.42 × 105 s-1 because of the absent of these effects. Remarkably, owing to the high PLQYs and proper TADF behaviors, devices based on these emitters exhibit state-of-art performance, including a maximum external quantum efficiency of up to 40.1%, and maximum current efficiency of 124.7 cd/A. More importantly, devices utilizing S2-TRZ as emitter achieves a relieved efficiency roll-off of only 7% under 1000 cd m-2, contrasting with 12% for O1-TRZ and 11% for S1-TRZ, respectively. These findings advance our fundamental understanding of TADF processes for high-performance electroluminescent devices.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *