Spiro‐fluoreno‐imidazole (SFI) Emitters Efficiently Harvesting Hot Excitons for Deep‐Blue Organic Light‐Emitting Diodes with CIE <sub>y</sub> Below 0.046

Hot exciton emitters have emerged as promising candidates for efficient deep-blue fluorescent organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs), by enabling triplet exciton harvesting through high-lying reverse intersystem crossing. However, limited molecular catalogues impede comprehensive mechanistic investigations and device performance elevations. Here, for the first time, we introduced a novel rigid and steric spiro-fluoreno-fused imidazole (SFI) skeleton to engineer high-performance deep-blue hot exciton emitters. Three derivatives, Cz-SFI, tCz-SFI, and 3Cz-SFI, were strategically designed to modulate donor-acceptor orbital overlap and hybridized local and charge-transfer character. Detailed theoretical calculations and transient absorption spectra clearly revealed the dominant channel of high-lying reverse intersystem crossing, with a rapid rate constant up to 3.36 × 10<sup>9</sup> s<sup>-1</sup>. Remarkably, the tCz-SFI-based OLED device achieved deep-blue electroluminescence with an exciton utilization efficiency of 83.2% and an unprecedented external quantum efficiency of 12.55% by efficiently harvesting hot triplet excitons. The device exhibited stable electroluminescence peaking at 410 nm, corresponding to Commission Internationale de l'Eclairage coordinates of (0.161, 0.043), setting a new benchmark for deep-blue hot-exciton OLEDs.

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Publication Details

Journal
Angewandte Chemie International Edition
Published
2025-12-18
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.202524293
Primary Topic
Organic Light-Emitting Diodes Research
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

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article

Spiro‐fluoreno‐imidazole (SFI) Emitters Efficiently Harvesting Hot Excitons for Deep‐Blue Organic Light‐Emitting Diodes with CIE y Below 0.046

Zikai He, Peng Zou, Zujin Zhao, Chenlong Wei et al.
Angewandte Chemie International Edition
Organic Light-Emitting Diodes Research
article

Spiro‐fluoreno‐imidazole (SFI) Emitters Efficiently Harvesting Hot Excitons for Deep‐Blue Organic Light‐Emitting Diodes with CIE y Below 0.046

Zikai He, Peng Zou, Zujin Zhao, Chenlong Wei, Teng‐Teng Chen, Songkun Zeng, Chao Li, Yufeng Xie, Wenbin Huang, Yantao Deng
article en

Abstract

Hot exciton emitters have emerged as promising candidates for efficient deep-blue fluorescent organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs), by enabling triplet exciton harvesting through high-lying reverse intersystem crossing. However, limited molecular catalogues impede comprehensive mechanistic investigations and device performance elevations. Here, for the first time, we introduced a novel rigid and steric spiro-fluoreno-fused imidazole (SFI) skeleton to engineer high-performance deep-blue hot exciton emitters. Three derivatives, Cz-SFI, tCz-SFI, and 3Cz-SFI, were strategically designed to modulate donor-acceptor orbital overlap and hybridized local and charge-transfer character. Detailed theoretical calculations and transient absorption spectra clearly revealed the dominant channel of high-lying reverse intersystem crossing, with a rapid rate constant up to 3.36 × 10<sup>9</sup> s<sup>-1</sup>. Remarkably, the tCz-SFI-based OLED device achieved deep-blue electroluminescence with an exciton utilization efficiency of 83.2% and an unprecedented external quantum efficiency of 12.55% by efficiently harvesting hot triplet excitons. The device exhibited stable electroluminescence peaking at 410 nm, corresponding to Commission Internationale de l'Eclairage coordinates of (0.161, 0.043), setting a new benchmark for deep-blue hot-exciton OLEDs.

Angewandte Chemie International EditionVol. 65(6)
Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HK), Harbin Institute of Technology (CN), Heilongjiang Institute of Technology (CN), State Key Laboratory of Luminescent Materials and Devices, University of Hong Kong (HK), South China University of Technology (CN)
National Natural Science Foundation of China, Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province, Shenzhen Fundamental Research Program
Openalex Percentile: Top 59%
Organic Light-Emitting Diodes Research
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