Boron-, sulfur- and nitrogen-doped decacyclic multiple resonance emitters for narrowband deep blue electroluminescence

Two boron-, sulfur- and nitrogen-doped polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) multiple resonance (MR) emitters, namely mDBNS and mDBNStBu, are developed by introducing two pairs of boron (B) and sulfur (S) atoms at meta-positions of central benzene and one carbazole moiety in decacyclic aromatic skeletons. The resultant emitters exhibit efficient deep blue narrowband emission at 451-457 nm with full width at half maximum (FWHM) of 18-22 nm in toluene, together with PLQY of 70%-76% and reverse intersystem crossing rate (kRISC) of 1.1-1.2 x 105 s-1. Solution-processed organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) employing mDBNStBu as emitters exhibit deep blue electroluminescence at 462 nm with CIE coordinates of (0.13, 0.12), together with a maximum external quantum efficiency (EQEmax) of 10.4%.