A new dicyanophenanthrene-based thermally activated delayed fluorophore: Design, synthesis, photophysical study, and electroluminescence application.

A novel thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) emitter, DCNP-SCF, is developed based on a dicyanophenanthrene acceptor. DCNP-SCF is prepared by a simple C-N coupling reaction. Its thermal, theoretical, photophysical, and electroluminescent properties are investigated, emphasizing its potential in organic electroluminescence devices. DCNP-SCF demonstrates highly distorted donor-acceptor conformation, facilitating significant TADF for efficient triplet harvesting in electroluminescence devices. Additionally, due to the moderate electron push-pull effect, DCNP-SCF exhibits appropriate intramolecular charge transfer for considerable photoluminescence quantum yield for electroluminescence applications.