B‒N covalent bond-involved π-extension of multiple resonance emitters enables high-performance narrowband electroluminescence

ABSTRACT Multi-boron-embedded multiple resonance thermally activated delayed fluorescence (MR-TADF) emitters show promise for achieving both high color-purity emission and high exciton utilization efficiency. However, their development is often impeded by a limited synthetic scope and excessive molecular weights, which challenge material acquisition and organic light-emitting diode (OLED) fabrication by vacuum deposition. Herein, we put forward a B‒N covalent bond-involved π-extension strategy via post-functionalization of MR frameworks, leading to the generation of high-order B/N-based motifs. The structurally and electronically extended π-system not only enhances molecular rigidity to narrow emission linewidth but also promotes reverse intersystem crossing to mitigate efficiency roll-off. As illustrated examples, ultra-narrowband sky-blue emitters (full-width at half-maximum as small as 8 nm in n-hexane) have been developed with multi-dimensional improvement in photophysical properties compared to their precursor emitters, which enables narrowband OLEDs with external quantum efficiencies (EQEmax) of up to 42.6%, in company with alleviated efficiency decline at high brightness, representing the best efficiency reported for single-host OLEDs. The success of these emitters highlights the effectiveness of our molecular design strategy for advanced MR-TADF emitters and confirms their extensive potential in high-performance optoelectronic devices.