Theoretical Study on Benzazole Derivatives for Use in Blue Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescence Emitters

Four novel thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) materials with 9,10-dihydro-9,9-dimethylacridine (DMAC) and phenylindolo(2,3-a)carbazole (PIC) as electron donors and benzazole derivatives (BO, and BT) as electron acceptors (DMAC-BO, DMAC-BT, PIC-BO, and PIC-BT) were designed and theoretically investigated for use as a blue organic light emitting diode (OLED) emitter. Using density functional theory (DFT) and time-dependent density functional theory (TD-DFT) calculations, we calculated the electron distribution of the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) and the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO), and the energy of the lowest singlet (S1) and the lowest triplet (T1) excited states. All the dyes had a small spatial overlap between the HOMO and LUMO because of the relatively large dihedral angle between the phenyl ring and the acceptor moiety. In terms of the energy difference (ΔEST) between the S1 state and the T1 state, DMAC-BO and DMAC-BT showed the small ΔEST (0.18 eV and 0.21 eV, respectively). However, PIC-BO and PIC-BT showed the large ΔEST (0.62 eV and 0.61 eV, respectively). Among the TADF materials, we showed that DMAC-BO would have the best TADF properties in terms of small ΔEST and blue OLED emitters.