Pure room temperature phosphorescence emission in nondoped OLEDs: adjustable oxidation states and excited-state modulation

Purely organic room temperature phosphorescence (RTP) materials are a new kind of triplet emitter, which can harvest both singlet and triplet excitons in theory, thus showing great application potential for organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). However, nondoped OLEDs based on RTP emitters have been rarely explored owing to challenges in realizing efficient phosphorescence in single-component systems. Herein, three donor–acceptor-type luminogens were designed and synthesized in which phenothiazine, with different oxidation degrees, acted as the electron donor and acetophenone as the acceptor. The adjustable oxidation states of phenothiazine enabled the modulation of excited states, facilitating the transition from dual RTP and thermally activated delayed fluorescence emissions to pure RTP. A nondoped OLED device was then fabricated based on the pure RTP emitter, achieving a high exciton utilization efficiency of 86%, clearly demonstrating the enhancement of electroluminescence performance through RTP properties.