The role of fluorine-substitution on the π-bridge in constructing effective thermally activated delayed fluorescence molecules

Two thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) emitters 9′-(4-(4,6-diphenyl-1,3,5-triazin-2-yl)-2-fluorophenyl)-9′H-9,3′:6′,9′′-tercarbazole (TCTZ-F) and 9′-(4-(4,6-diphenyl-1,3,5-triazin-2-yl)-2,6-difluorophenyl)-9′H-9,3′:6′,9′′-tercarbazole (TCTZ-2F) were synthesized and compared to the previously reported molecule 9′-(4-(4,6-diphenyl-1,3,5-triazin-2-yl)phenyl)-9′H-9,3′:6′,9′′-tercarbazole (TCTZ) to explore the possible effects of the fluorine atom(s) on the molecular conformation, electronic coupling between the donor and acceptor groups, and consequently the photophysical behavior of the emitters. Specifically, the TCTZ-F molecule was calculated to have a smaller dihedral angle than TCTZ-2F and a smaller S₁-T₁ gap than TCTZ, which led it to have the highest photoluminescence quantum yield (PLQY) among this series of compounds. An OLED fabricated with TCTZ-F as the emitter achieved the highest external quantum efficiencies (22.5%) of this series, indicating that fluorination can play a useful role in TADF emitters.