Issue 37, 2022

Rationalization and tuning of doublet emission in organic radicals

Abstract

Neutral organic radical emitters are promising alternative candidates for efficient OLEDs. Their potential relies on their ability to avoid spin statistics loss of charge recombination as in closed shell emitters. Yet, these radicals generally present limited luminescence that was shown to be enhanced via chemical functionalization. Here we provide a detailed physical interpretation of the origin of the intrinsic poor emissive properties of TTM, a paradigmatic doublet emitter, from a computational perspective. The weak emission is rationalized on the basis of the mixing of intramolecular charge transfer (CT) excitations between the radical center and the ligands. We demonstrate that significant cancellation of the transition dipole moments of these CT contributions results in low oscillator strength and show how the modulation of their relative contributions to the composition of the lowest excited doublet state via donor substitution can brighten the organic radical. We illustrate this analysis through the study of a series of TTM derivatives. This study contributes to further the understanding of the photophysics of organic radicals and provides new insights for the tuning of their luminescence by rational design.

Graphical abstract: Rationalization and tuning of doublet emission in organic radicals

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
20 apr 2022
Accepted
08 may 2022
First published
09 may 2022

J. Mater. Chem. C, 2022,10, 13826-13833

Rationalization and tuning of doublet emission in organic radicals

C. Tonnelé and D. Casanova, J. Mater. Chem. C, 2022, 10, 13826 DOI: 10.1039/D2TC01632J

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements