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Review
. 2018 Jan 30:14:282-308.
doi: 10.3762/bjoc.14.18. eCollection 2018.

Recent advances on organic blue thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) emitters for organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs)

Thanh-Tuân Bui  1 , Fabrice Goubard  1 , Malika Ibrahim-Ouali  2 , Didier Gigmes  3 , Frédéric Dumur  3
Affiliations
Review

Recent advances on organic blue thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) emitters for organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs)

Thanh-Tuân Bui et al. Beilstein J Org Chem. .

Abstract

The design of highly emissive and stable blue emitters for organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) is still a challenge, justifying the intense research activity of the scientific community in this field. Recently, a great deal of interest has been devoted to the elaboration of emitters exhibiting a thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF). By a specific molecular design consisting into a minimal overlap between the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) and the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) due to a spatial separation of the electron-donating and the electron-releasing parts, luminescent materials exhibiting small S1-T1 energy splitting could be obtained, enabling to thermally upconvert the electrons from the triplet to the singlet excited states by reverse intersystem crossing (RISC). By harvesting both singlet and triplet excitons for light emission, OLEDs competing and sometimes overcoming the performance of phosphorescence-based OLEDs could be fabricated, justifying the interest for this new family of materials massively popularized by Chihaya Adachi since 2012. In this review, we proposed to focus on the recent advances in the molecular design of blue TADF emitters for OLEDs during the last few years.

Keywords: OLED; TADF; blue; electroluminescence; emitter.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Radiative deactivation pathways existing in fluorescent, phosphorescent and TADF materials.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Boron-containing TADF emitters B1–B10.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Diphenylsulfone-based TADF emitters D1–D7.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Triazine-based TADF emitters T1–T3, T5–T7 and azasiline derivatives T3 and T4.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Triazine-based TADF emitters T8, T9, T11–T14 and carbazole derivative T10.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Triazine-based TADF emitters T15–T19.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Triazine- and pyrimidine-based TADF emitters T20–T26.
Figure 8
Figure 8
Pyrimidine-based TADF emitters T27–T30.
Figure 9
Figure 9
Triazine-based TADF polymers T31–T32.
Figure 10
Figure 10
Phenoxaphosphine oxide and phenoxathiin dioxide-based TADF emitters P1 and P2.
Figure 11
Figure 11
CN-Substituted pyridine and pyrimidine derivatives CN-P1–CN-P8.
Figure 12
Figure 12
CN-Substituted pyridine derivatives CN-P9 and CN-P10.
Figure 13
Figure 13
Phosphine oxide-based TADF blue emitters PO-1–PO-3.
Figure 14
Figure 14
Phosphine oxide-based TADF blue emitters PO-4–PO-9.
Figure 15
Figure 15
Benzonitrile-based emitters BN-1–BN-5.
Figure 16
Figure 16
Benzonitrile-based emitters BN-6–BN-11.
Figure 17
Figure 17
Benzoylpyridine-carbazole hybrid emitters BP-1–BP-6.
Figure 18
Figure 18
Benzoylpyridine-carbazole hybrid emitters BP-7–BP-10.
Figure 19
Figure 19
Triazole-based emitters Trz-1 and Trz-2.
Figure 20
Figure 20
Triarylamine-based emitters TPA-1–TPA-3.
Figure 21
Figure 21
Distribution of the CIE coordinates of ca. 90 blue TADF emitters listed in this review.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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