Development of an Organic Emitter Exhibiting Reverse Intersystem Crossing Faster than Intersystem Crossing

Abstract

In thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF)-based organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs), acceleration of reverse intersystem crossing (RISC) and suppression of intersystem crossing (ISC) are demanded to shorten a lifetime of triplet excitons. As a system realizing RISC faster than ISC, inverted singlet-triplet excited states (iST) with a negative energy difference (ΔEST) between the lowest excited singlet and the lowest triplet states have been gathering much attention recently. Here, we have focused on an asymmetric hexa-azaphenalene (A6AP) core to obtain a new insight into iST. Based on A6AP, we have newly designed A6AP-Cz with the calculated ΔEST of −44 meV. The experimental studies of a synthesized A6AP-Cz revealed that the lifetime of delayed fluorescence (τDF) was only 54 ns, which was the shortest among all organic materials. The rate constant of RISC (kRISC=1.9×107 s−1) was greater than that of ISC (kISC=1.0×107 s−1). The negative ΔEST of A6AP-Cz was experimentally confirmed from 1) the kRISC and kISC (−45 meV) and 2) the temperature-dependent τDF. 3) The onsets of fluorescence and phosphorescence spectra at 77 K also supported the evidence of negative ΔEST (−73 meV). This study demonstrated the potential of A6AP as an iST core for the first time.