Unique Solid-State Emission Behavior of Aromatic Difluoroboronated β-Diketones as an Emitter in Organic Light-Emitting Devices

Abstract

Aromatic difluoroboronated β-diketone (BF₂ DK) derivatives are a widely known class of luminescent organic materials that exhibit high photoluminescent quantum efficiency and unique aggregation-dependent fluorescence behavior. However, there have been only a few reports on their use in solid-state electronic devices, such as organic light-emitting devices (OLEDs). Herein, we investigated the solid-state properties and OLED performance of a series of π-extended BF₂ DK derivatives that have previously been shown to exhibit intense fluorescence in the solution state. The BF₂ DK derivatives formed exciplexes with a carbazole derivative and exhibited thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) behavior to give orange electroluminescence with a peak external quantum efficiency of 10 % that apparently exceeds the theoretical efficiency limit of conventional fluorescent OLEDs (7.5 %), assuming a light out-coupling factor of 30 %.

Keywords: aggregation; conjugation; exciplexes; luminescence; organic light-emitting diodes; thermally activated delayed fluorescence.