Efficient thermally activated delayed fluorescence materials from symmetric anthraquinone derivatives for high-performance red OLEDs

Constructing efficient red thermally activated delayed-fluorescence (TADF) materials for high-performance organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) remains challenging due to the formidable barrier of energy gap law. In this work, a design strategy of connecting two donor units to the adjacent positions of electron acceptor is proposed for creating red luminescent materials, and four Y-shaped TADF molecules consisting of strong electron-withdrawing anthraquinone (AQ) acceptor and triphenylamine or acridine-based donors are designed and synthesized. They exhibit strong red emissions (604−618 nm) in toluene solutions and orange/red emissions (566−608 nm) with good photoluminescence quantum yields (43−68%) in doped films, and enjoy small singlet-triplet energy gaps (0.02−0.10 eV) and fast reverse intersystem crossing processes (1.5–7.3 × 10⁵ s⁻¹), which are attributed to the unique Y-shape structure. A maximum external quantum efficiency of 19.5% with an electroluminescence peak at 616 nm is achieved for AQ-PTPA-based red doped device, representing the highest level for red TADF-OLEDs based on AQ acceptor in the literature. This work can provide guidance for the design of efficient red delayed-fluorescence molecules for the application in OLEDs.