Acceptor-Donor-Acceptor-Type Orange-Red Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescence Materials Realizing External Quantum...

Two new orange-red thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) materials, PzTDBA and PzDBA, are reported. These materials are designed based on the acceptor-donor-acceptor (A-D-A) configuration, containing rigid boron acceptors and dihydrophenazine donor moieties. These materials exhibit a small ΔE_ST of 0.05-0.06 eV, photoluminescence quantum yield (PLQY) as high as near unity, and short delayed exciton lifetime (τ_d ) of less than 2.63 µs in 5 wt% doped film. Further, these materials show a high reverse intersystem crossing rate (k_risc ) on the order of 10⁶ s^-1 . The TADF devices fabricated with 5 wt% PzTDBA and PzDBA as emitting dopants show maximum EQE of 30.3% and 21.8% with extremely low roll-off of 3.6% and 3.2% at 1000 cd m^-2 and electroluminescence (EL) maxima at 576 nm and 595 nm, respectively. The low roll-off character of these materials is analyzed by using a roll-off model and the exciton annihilation quenching rates are found to be suppressed by the fast k_risc and short delayed exciton lifetime. These devices show operating device lifetimes (LT₅₀ ) of 159 and 193 h at 1000 cd m^-2 for PzTDBA and PzDBA, respectively. The high efficiency and low roll-off of these materials are attributed to the good electronic properties originatng from the A-D-A molecular configuration.