High‐Performance Orange–Red Organic Light‐Emitting Diodes with External Quantum Efficiencies Reaching 33.5% based on Carbonyl‐Containing Delayed Fluorescence Molecules

Abstract

Abstract Developing orange to red purely organic luminescent materials having external quantum efficiencies (ηexts) exceeding 30% is challenging because it generally requires strong intramolecular charge transfer, efficient reverse intersystem crossing (RISC), high photoluminescence quantum yield (ΦPL), and large optical outcoupling efficiency (Φout) simultaneously. Herein, by introducing benzoyl to dibenzo[a,c]phenazine acceptor, a stronger electron acceptor, dibenzo[a,c]phenazin‐11‐yl(phenyl)methanone, is created and employed for constructing orange–red delayed fluorescence molecules with various acridine‐based electron donors. The incorporation of benzoyl leads to red‐shifted photoluminescence with accelerated RISC, reduced delayed lifetimes, and increased ΦPLs, and the adoption of spiro‐structured acridine donors promotes horizontal dipole orientation and thus renders high Φouts. Consequently, the state‐of‐the‐art orange–red organic light‐emitting diodes are achieved, providing record‐high electroluminescence (EL) efficiencies of 33.5%, 95.3 cd A−1, and 93.5 lm W‒1. By referring the control molecule without benzoyl, it is demonstrated that the presence of benzoyl can exert significant positive effect over improving delayed fluorescence and enhancing EL efficiencies, which can be a feasible design for robust organic luminescent materials.

Keywords

• horizontal dipole orientation
• orange–red emitters
• organic light‐emitting diodes
• spin–orbit coupling
• thermally activated delayed fluorescence