Achieving efficient violet-blue electroluminescence with CIE y 6% from naphthyl-linked phenanthroimidazole–carbazole hybrid fluorophores

In this work, we revealed a new approach for the development of efficient violet-blue emitting materials featuring a hybrid local and charge transfer (HLCT) excited state through the incorporation of naphthyl group(s) as a weak n-type π spacer in a donor–π–acceptor (D–π–A) system. The resulting materials (TPINCz and TPIBNCz) show improved intramolecular charge transfer properties and highly efficient violet-blue fluorescence. It is demonstrated that the pattern of the π spacers has significant influence on the photophysical properties. The incorporation of a naphthyl/binaphthyl spacer between the donor and acceptor moieties can alleviate the common dilemma that enhancing device performance by increasing the charge transfer excited properties often leads to red-shifted emissions. A device using TPINCz as an emissive dopant shows a violet-blue emission with CIE coordinates of (0.153, 0.059) and a record high EQE of 6.56 ± 0.11% at a brightness of 1000 cd m−2. To the best of our knowledge, this performance is the highest among the reported devices with CIEy ≤0.08. Our study provides a new pathway for the design of high-performance violet-blue emitters with a D–π–A architecture in organic electroluminescence applications.