Blue Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescence with Sub‐Microsecond Short Exciton Lifetimes: Acceleration of Triplet–Singlet Spin Interconversion via Quadrupolar Charge‐Transfer States

Abstract

AbstractExciton lifetime is a critical factor in determining the performance of optoelectronic functional systems and devices. Thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) emitters that can concurrently achieve a high fluorescence quantum yield and short exciton lifetime are desirable for application in organic light‐emitting diodes (OLEDs) with suppressed efficiency roll‐off. Herein, phenoxaborin and xanthone‐cored TADF emitters with quadrupolar electronic structures are reported to exhibit sub‐microsecond TADF lifetimes as short as 650 and 970 ns, respectively, while preserving high fluorescence quantum yields. By extending the El‐Sayed rule to the quadrupolar π‐systems, the contribution of doubly degenerate charge‐transfer excited states induced by dual donor units can enhance the spin–orbit coupling between them, leading to a spin‐flip acceleration between the excited triplet and singlet states. This electronic feature is advantageous for mitigating exciton annihilation processes in the emission layer, thereby reducing the efficiency roll‐offs in OLEDs. Consequently, a high external electroluminescence quantum efficiency over 20% can be retained, even under operating the device at a high luminance of 1000 cd m−2.