Realizing High-Efficiency Orange-Red Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescence Materials through the Construction of Intramolecular Noncovalent Interactions

The development of highly efficient orange and red thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) materials for constructing full-color and white organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) remains insufficient because of the formidable challenges in molecular design, such as the severe radiationless decay and the intrinsic trade-off between the efficiencies of radiative decay and reverse intersystem crossing (RISC). Herein, we design two high-efficiency orange and orange-red TADF molecules by constructing intermolecular noncovalent interactions. This strategy could not only ensure high emission efficiency via suppression of the nonradiative relaxation and enhancement of the radiative transition but also create intermediate triplet excited states to ensure the RISC process. Both emitters exhibit typical TADF characteristics, with a fast radiative rate and a low nonradiative rate. Photoluminescence quantum yields (PLQYs) of the orange (TPA-PT) and orange-red (DMAC-PT) materials reach up to 94 and 87%, respectively. Benefiting from the excellent photophysical properties and stability, OLEDs based on these TADF emitters realize orange to orange-red electroluminescence with high external quantum efficiencies reaching 26.2%. The current study demonstrates that the introduction of intermolecular noncovalent interactions is a feasible strategy for designing highly efficient orange to red TADF materials.