Concentration quenching resistant donor-acceptor molecular structure for high efficiency and long lifetime thermally activated delayed fluorescent organic light-emitting diodes via suppressed non-radiative channel

Abstract

A molecular design having t-butyl groups surrounding a donor-acceptor type core structure was developed as an approach to obtain high external quantum efficiency by suppressing concentration quenching effect caused by strong intermolecular interaction. The donor-acceptor type core structure was surrounded by six t-butyl groups to separate the donor-acceptor core structure between molecules. A heptazine acceptor and a diphenylamine donor based thermally activated delayed fluorescent emitter protected by the multiple t-butyl units achieved maximum external quantum efficiency of 32.6% at 1% doping concentration and 23.0% even at a high doping concentration of 20% by reducing concentration quenching effect. Furthermore, the lifetime of the thermally activated delayed fluorescent devices was also improved relative to that of the previous emitter with the same acceptor. The external quantum efficiency and device lifetime are better than any other results reported in the orange TADF OLEDs.