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Conformational Dependence of Triplet Energies in Rotationally Hindered N‐ and S‐Heterocyclic Dimers: New Design and Measurement Rules for High Triplet Energy OLED Host Materials

Wright, Iain A.; Danos, Andrew; Montanaro, Stephanie; Batsanov, Andrei S.; Monkman, Andrew P.; Bryce, Martin R.

Conformational Dependence of Triplet Energies in Rotationally Hindered N‐ and S‐Heterocyclic Dimers: New Design and Measurement Rules for High Triplet Energy OLED Host Materials Thumbnail


Authors

Iain A. Wright

Stephanie Montanaro



Abstract

A series of four heterocyclic dimers has been synthesized, with twisted geometries imposed across the central linking bond by ortho‐alkoxy chains. These include two isomeric bicarbazoles, a bis(dibenzothiophene‐S,S‐dioxide) and a bis(thioxanthene‐S,S‐dioxide). Spectroscopic and electrochemical methods, supported by density functional theory, have given detailed insights into how para‐ vs. meta‐ vs. broken conjugation, and electron‐rich vs. electron‐poor heterocycles impact the HOMO–LUMO gap and singlet and triplet energies. Crucially for applications as OLED hosts, the triplet energy (ET) of these molecules was found to vary significantly between dilute polymer films and neat films, related to conformational demands of the molecules in the solid state. One of the bicarbazole species shows a variation in ET of 0.24 eV in the different media—sufficiently large to “make‐or‐break” an OLED device—with similar discrepancies found between neat films and frozen solution measurements of other previously reported OLED hosts. From consolidated optical and optoelectronic investigations of different host/dopant combinations, we identify that only the lower ET values measured in neat films give a reliable indicator of host/guest compatibility. This work also provides new molecular design rules for obtaining very high ET materials and controlling their HOMO and LUMO energies.

Citation

Wright, I. A., Danos, A., Montanaro, S., Batsanov, A. S., Monkman, A. P., & Bryce, M. R. (2021). Conformational Dependence of Triplet Energies in Rotationally Hindered N‐ and S‐Heterocyclic Dimers: New Design and Measurement Rules for High Triplet Energy OLED Host Materials. Chemistry - A European Journal, 27(21), 6545-6556. https://doi.org/10.1002/chem.202100036

Journal Article Type Article
Online Publication Date Feb 9, 2021
Publication Date Apr 12, 2021
Deposit Date Mar 31, 2021
Publicly Available Date Mar 31, 2021
Journal Chemistry - A European Journal
Print ISSN 0947-6539
Electronic ISSN 1521-3765
Publisher Wiley
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 27
Issue 21
Pages 6545-6556
DOI https://doi.org/10.1002/chem.202100036
Public URL https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1250471

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Publisher Licence URL
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Copyright Statement
© 2021 The Authors. Chemistry - A European Journal published by Wiley-VCH GmbH

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.






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