Constructing high-efficiency orange-red thermally activated delayed fluorescence emitters by three-dimension molecular engineering

Preparing high-efficiency solution-processable orange-red thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) emitters remains challenging. Herein, we design a series of emitters consisting of trinaphtho[3,3,3]propellane (TNP) core derivatized with different TADF units. Benefiting from the unique hexagonal stacking architecture of TNPs, TADF units are thus kept in the cavities between two TNPs, which decrease concentration quenching and annihilation of long-lived triplet excitons. According to the molecular engineering of TADF and host units, the excited states can further be regulated to effectively enhance spin-orbit coupling (SOC) processes. We observe a high-efficiency orange-red emission at 604 nm in one instance with high SOC value of 0.862 cm−1 and high photoluminescence quantum yield of 70.9%. Solution-processable organic light-emitting diodes exhibit a maximum external quantum efficiency of 24.74%. This study provides a universal strategy for designing high-performance TADF emitters through molecular packing and excited state regulation.