Fused Dual‐Donor Design for Accelerating Reverse Intersystem Crossing Rates of Spatially Folded Through‐Space Charge Transfer Emitters
The development of through-space charge transfer (TSCT)-thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) material is defective in relatively low reverse intersystem crossing (RISC) rates (commonly <5 × 10<sup>5</sup> s<sup>-1</sup>). Herein, we fuse two 3,6-dimethyl-8H-indolo[3,2,1-de]acridine (IAc) donor units to obtain large planar donors (m-bIAc and p-bIAc) for forming spatially folded A-D|D-A configured TSCT emitters (DCT-1 and DCT-2). The configuration of highly parallel and large-plane intramolecular multiple π-stacking has been achieved. The symmetrical multi-channel charge transfer networks of emitters induce multiple energetically proximal excited states within a small energy range (<0.12 eV) at the lowest excited state, creating additional configuration interaction and spin-orbit coupling channels to accelerate the RISC process. This molecular configuration yields enhanced RISC rates of 6.19 × 10<sup>5</sup> s<sup>-1</sup> for DCT-1 and 1.05 × 10<sup>6</sup> s<sup>-1</sup> for DCT-2. Solution-processed organic light-emitting diodes employing these emitters achieve maximum external quantum efficiencies of 18.9% (DCT-1, 474 nm sky-blue emission) and 23.9% (DCT-2, 498 nm green emission), with attenuated efficiency roll-offs of DCT-2 (12% at 1000 cd m<sup>-2</sup>). This work provides a critical pathway for manipulating dense excited states to address the bottleneck of the RISC rates while maintaining structural rigidity, promoting further advancement of TSCT-TADF materials.
Authors
- Haisong Zhao
- Shouke Yan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1627-341X)
- Quanwei Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7788-6098)
- Maoqiu Li
- Zhongjie Ren (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7981-4431)
- Yuchao Liu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9088-3852)
Institutions
- Qingdao University of Science and Technology (CN)
- Beijing University of Chemical Technology (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Angewandte Chemie International Edition
- Published
- 2025-04-15
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.202506654
- Citations
- 5
- Primary Topic
- Organic Light-Emitting Diodes Research
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 3.65
Funders
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province