Nonconjugated Triptycene-Spaced Donor–Acceptor-Type Emitters Showing Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescence via Both Intra- and Intermolecular Charge-Transfer Transitions

Thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) emitters have aroused considerable attention, particularly for their great potential in organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). In typical TADF molecules, intramolecular charge transfer (CT) between electron-donor (D) and electron-acceptor (A) moieties is the dominant transition. Actually, CT transitions can possibly occur between different molecules as well. Herein, we used a nonconjugated triptycene (TPE) moiety to space D and A moieties and developed two novel emitters tBuDMAC-TPE-TRZ and tBuDMAC-TPE-TTR to explore the roles of intra- and intermolecular CT transitions. Along with weak intramolecular CT transitions, intermolecular CT transitions are dominant for tBuDMAC-TPE-TRZ and tBuDMAC-TPE-TTR neat films. Particularly, tBuDMAC-TPE-TRZ showed a high maximum external quantum efficiency of 10.0% in a nondoped solution-processed OLED, which was evidently higher than that of a corresponding 10 wt % tBuDMAC-TPE-TRZ-doped OLED with 4,4′,4″-tris­(carbazol-9-yl)­triphenylamine (TCTA) as the host matrix. The results prove that intermolecular CT transitions indeed participate in the CT transition process in these systems and they are helpful to enhance the electroluminescence performance of emitting systems with weak intramolecular CT transitions.