TADF polymer enables over 20% EQE in solution‐processed green fluorescent OLEDs

Abstract

AbstractSolution‐processed fluorescent organic light‐emitting diodes (OLEDs) are believed to be favorable for low‐cost, large‐area, and flexible displays but still suffer from the limited external quantum efficiency (EQE) below 5%. Herein, we demonstrate the EQE breakthrough by introducing a donor–acceptor type thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) polymer as the sensitizer for the typical green‐emitting fluorescent dopants. Benefitting from their matched energy alignment, the unwanted trap‐assisted recombination directly on fluorescent dopant is prevented to avoid the additional loss of triplet excitons. Indeed, triplet excitons are mainly formed on the polymeric TADF sensitizer via a Langevin recombination and then spin‐flipped to singlet excitons due to the good upconversion capability. Followed by an efficient Förster energy transfer, both singlet and triplet excitons can be harvested by fluorescent dopants, leading to a promising solution‐processed green hyperfluorescence with a record‐high EQE of 21.2% (72.2 cd/A, 59.7 lm/W) and Commission Internationale de L'Eclairage coordinates of (0.32, 0.59). The results clearly highlight the great potential of solution‐processed fluorescent OLEDs based on TADF polymers as the sensitizer.