Introducing steric groups to thermally activated delayed fluorescence emitter for constructing efficient non-doped solution-processed organic light-emitting diodes

Solution-processed organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) remain a reliable approach towards large-area and flexible display devices, but also hold higher requirement on luminescent materials. It is still challenge to develop emitting layers with great solution-processable property and excellent luminous behavior, and especially difficult for non-doped emitting materials. In this work, a TADF emitter, namely 2,3,5,6-tetrakis(4-([1,1':3′,1″-terphenyl]-5′-yl)-9H-carbazol-9-yl)benzonitrile (3Ph-4CzBN), was designed and synthesized by introducing the steric-hindrance triphenyl unit to 2,3,5,6-tetrakis(carbazol-9-yl) benzonitrile (4CzBN) which is usually applied to vacuum evaporation. The incorporation of triphenyl groups significantly increased the molecule weight, thereby rendering 3Ph-4CzBN suitable for solution-processed OLEDs. Meanwhile, 3Ph-4CzBN exhibited two-fold of photoluminescence quantum yield values in pure film than 4CzBN, indicating fluorescence quenching was relatively suppressed by steric groups. The solution-processed OLEDs employed 3Ph-4CzBN as non-doped emitting layer, achieved a maximum external quantum efficiency of 12.8 %, as well as current efficiency and power efficiency up to 34.2 cd A⁻¹ and 23.9 lm W⁻¹, respectively.