Sulfone-Embedded Heterocyclic Narrowband Emitters with Strengthened Molecular Rigidity and Suppressed High-Frequency Vibronic Coupling.

Sulfone-embedded heterocyclics are of great interest in organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs), however, exploring highly efficient narrowband emitters based on sulfone-embedded heterocyclics remains challenging. Herein, five emitters with different sulfur valence state and molecular rigidity, namely tP, tCPD, 2tCPD, tPD and tPT, are thoroughly analysed. With restricted twisting of flexible peripheral phenyl by strengthening molecular rigidity, molecular emission spectra can be enormously narrowed. Further, introducing the sulfone group with bending vibration in low-frequency region that suppresses high-frequency vibration, sharp narrow full-widths at half-maximum of 28 and 25 nm are achieved for 2tCPD and tPD, respectively. Maximum external quantum efficiencies of 22.0 % and 27.1 % are successfully realized for 2tCPD- and tPD-based OLED devices. These results offer a novel design strategy for constructing narrowband emitters by introducing sulfone group into a rigid molecular framework.