Citation: Yueyan Zhang, Zhihai Yang, Xia Suo, Ruicheng Wang, Xuewei Nie, Zafar Mahmood, Yanping Huo, Shi-Jian Su, Shaomin Ji. Tailoring luminescence properties of NIR-BODIPY emitters through donor engineering and intramolecular conformational locking for high-performance solution-processed OLEDs[J]. Chinese Chemical Letters, ;2025, 36(12): 111071. doi: 10.1016/j.cclet.2025.111071 shu

Tailoring luminescence properties of NIR-BODIPY emitters through donor engineering and intramolecular conformational locking for high-performance solution-processed OLEDs

Yueyan Zhang ^a ,
Zhihai Yang ^b ,
Xia Suo ^a ,
Ruicheng Wang ^a ,
Xuewei Nie ^b ,
Zafar Mahmood ^{a, *,} ,
Yanping Huo ^a ,
Shi-Jian Su ^{b, *,} ,
Shaomin Ji ^{a, *,}

a.
School of Chemical Engineering and Light Industry, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou 510006, China
b.
Guangdong Basic Research Center of Excellence for Energy and Information Polymer Materials, State Key Laboratory of Luminescent Materials and Devices, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, China

zafarchemistry18@gmail.com

mssjsu@scut.edu.cn

smji@gdut.edu.cn

Received Date: 30 December 2024
Revised Date: 7 March 2025
Accepted Date: 11 March 2025
Available Online: 13 March 2025

Figures(9)

The development of cost-effective, environmentally sustainable narrowband near-infrared (NIR) organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) remains challenging due to low intrinsic quantum yields of NIR emitters, as constrained by the energy gap law and inefficient triplet exciton utilization. In this study, we present a conformation-locking strategy combined with donor engineering to enhance NIR emitters based on a boron-dipyrromethene (BODIPY) scaffold for high-performance solution-processed OLEDs. Two NIR emitters, Ph-BDP-Cz and Ph-BDP-PY, were synthesized by introducing a donor at the α-position of the BODIPY core via a vinyl bridge. This design increases molecular rigidity by promoting HF interactions between vinyl hydrogens and the BF₂ group, suppressing twisting and scissoring motions, which results in narrow emission and high photoluminescence quantum yields. Donor engineering also enables fine-tuning of emission wavelengths without broadening the full-width at half-maximum (FWHM), maintaining a narrow emission profile. Using these BODIPY emitters in thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF)-sensitized hyperfluorescent OLEDs, we achieved a maximum external quantum efficiency (EQE) of 6.9% with an emission peak at 702 nm and a narrow FWHM of < 45 nm. To our knowledge, this represents one of the highest efficiencies among TADF sensitized solution-processed NIR OLEDs, offering a promising path toward the development of sustainable and high-performance NIR optoelectronic devices.
- Near-infrared,
- BODIPY,
- Narrowband,
- Solution-processed,
- OLED
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