Four emitters based on the naphthyridine acceptor moiety and various donor units exhibiting thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) were designed and synthesized. The emitters exhibited excellent TADF properties with a small ΔE ST and a high photoluminescence quantum yield. A green TADF organic light-emitting diode based on 10-(4-(1,8-naphthyridin-2-yl)phenyl)-10H-phenothiazine exhibited a maximum external quantum efficiency of 16.4% with Commission Internationale de L'éclairage coordinates of (0.368, 0.569) as well as a high current and power efficiency of 58.6 cd/A and 57.1 lm/W, respectively. The supreme power efficiency is a record-high value among the reported values of devices with naphthyridine-based emitters. This results from its high photoluminescence quantum yield, efficient TADF, and horizontal molecular orientation. The molecular orientations of the films of the host and the host doped with the naphthyridine emitter were explored by angle-dependent photoluminescence and grazing-incidence small-angle X-ray scattering (GIWAXS). The orientation order parameters (ΘADPL) were found to be 0.37, 0.45, 0.62, and 0.74 for the naphthyridine dopants with dimethylacridan, carbazole, phenoxazine, and phenothiazine donor moieties, respectively. These results were also proven by GIWAXS measurement. The derivative of naphthyridine and phenothiazine was shown to be more flexible to align with the host and to show the favorable horizontal molecular orientation and crystalline domain size, benefiting the outcoupling efficiency and contributing to the device efficiency.
© 2023 The Authors. Published by American Chemical Society.