Simple sulfone-bridged heterohelicene structure realizes ultraviolet narrowband thermally activated delayed fluorescence, circularly polarized luminescence, and room temperature phosphorescence

Due to narrowband emission and high quantum efficiencies, polycyclic aromatic heterocycles with multi-resonance thermally activated delayed fluorescence (MR-TADF) properties have recently gained considerable attention in the organic optoelectronic field. Albeit their great promise in the full visible region covering from blue to red, MR-TADF emitters with ultraviolet emission have been rarely reported. Through locking the two ortho-positions of a triphenylamine core by sulfone groups, a simple polycyclic aromatic heterocycle, BTPT, was facilely constructed, exhibiting 368 nm ultraviolet emission with a narrow full width at half maximum (FWHM) of 33 nm. Its neat film exhibited distinct TADF property with a main emission peak at 388 nm. Noteworthily, the enantiomeric crystals of BTPT not only demonstrated significant circularly polarized luminescence (CPL) with large luminescence dissymmetry factor in the 10−3 order but also displayed obvious room temperature phosphorescence (RTP). The relationship between this innovative helical unit and unique photophysical properties, including ultraviolet MRTADF, CPL, and RTP, was reasonably revealed.