Hydrogen bond boosts EQEs to 30+% for acridone-carbazole based deep-blue TADF emitters in simple-structure OLEDs

A group of D-A-D type thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) emitters were developed with 10-(pyridin-2-yl)acridin-9(10H)-one as acceptor and substituted carbazoles as donors. The design was focused on incorporating pyridyl to the 10-site nitrogen atom of acridin-9(10H)-one ring, which improved the reverse intersystem crossing rate constant kRISC from 103 s−1 to 105 s−1. More importantly, the linkage of pyridyl uniquely from its 2-position to acridin-9(10H)-one ring induced intramolecular hydrogen bond, which suppressed nonradiative transition rates by three to four orders of magnitude and universally increased the photoluminescence quantum yields from 54 % to nearly 100 %. In combination with the intrinsic high horizontal orientation ratios over 90 % of acridin-9(10H)-one based molecules, such pyridyl decoration boosted the external quantum efficiencies of simple-structure deep blue organic light-emitting diodes to 31–33 % with CIEx of 0.15 and CIEy of 0.09 ∼ 0.12, being double of that for hydrogen-bond-free parent emitter and representing the state-of-the-art efficiencies for the deep blue twisted intramolecular charge transfer type TADF materials with CIEy ≤ 0.10 so far. These TADF emitters are comparable with the prevailing multiresonance blue emitters in terms of distinctive efficiencies, but advantageous in much facile syntheses.