Bee-shaped Host with Ideal Polarity and Energy Levels for High-efficiency Blue and White Fluorescent Organic Light-emitting Diodes

Abstract An ideal host for blue emitters with thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) should bear a moderate polarity to relax charge transfer (CT) states of dopant for a reduced singlet-triplet energy gap (ΔEST) while utter-mostly keeping blue emission, a high triplet energy to confine exciton, and a small ΔEST for feasible charge injection. However, it is rather challenging to simultaneously fulfill all those requirements as the strong CT characteristic necessary for a small ΔEST usually enlarge polarity and lower energy levels. Here, a symmetrical ortho-linked diphenylphosphine oxide (DPO)/carbazole derivative is developed, of which the configuration resembles the bee with carbazoles as front wings, phenyl rings on DPO as back wings, hooked together by π-π interaction. This motif features a short distance of charges for a moderate polarity of 3.45 D, a twisted non-conjugation structure for a small ΔEST of 0.24 eV with a high triplet of 2.98 eV and multiple intermolecular interactions for enhanced charge transport. The corresponding blue TADF device realizes a compromise between efficiency and colors with a maximum external quantum efficiency (EQEmax) of 35.7% and a CIEy of 0.20. Furthermore, a full-TADF white device with this host realizes a EQEmax of 26.1%, representing the state-of-the-art performance.