Theoretical Study of Phenoxaphosphine-Based Blue Organic Light-Emitting Diode Exhibiting Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescence.

We designed novel thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) materials by combining the electron donors spiro[acridine-9,9'-fluorene] (D1) and 9,9-diphenyl acridan (PAC) with the electron acceptor phenoxaphosphine (OPO) unit (2D1-OPO and 2PAC-OPO) and used those property to compare it with that of the reference material using dimethylacridan (Ac) as an electron donor (Ac-OPO) for blue organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). To calculate electron distribution of highest occupied molecular orbitals (HOMO), lowest occupied molecular orbital (LUMO), lowest singlet () energy and lowest triplet () excitation states, density functional theory (DFT) and time-dependent DFT calculation have been used. The calculated energy difference (Δ) between the and states of 2D1-OPO (0.125 eV) and 2PAC-OPO (0.153 eV) were as small as that of Ac-OPO (0.127 eV). The results showed that 2D1-OPO is a good candidate for blue OLED emitter because it has an emission wavelength of 441.0 nm as well as a sufficiently small Δ value and large oscillator intensity value.