Blue Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescence Polymers with Nonconjugated Backbone and Through-Space Charge Transfer Effect

We demonstrate novel molecular design for thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) polymers based on a nonconjugated polyethylene backbone with through-space charge transfer effect between pendant electron donor (D) and acceptor (A) units. Different from conventional conjugated D-A polymers with through bond charge transfer effect, the nonconjugated architecture avoids direct conjugation between D and A units, enabling blue emission. Meanwhile, spatial pi-pi interaction between the physically separated D and A units results in both small singlet-triplet energy splitting (0.019 eV) and high photoluminescence quantum yield (up to 60% in film state). The resulting polymer with 5 mol % acceptor unit gives efficient blue electroluminescence with Commission Internationale de l'Eclairage coordinates of (0.176, 0.269), together with a high external quantum efficiency of 12.1% and low efficiency roll-off of 4.9% (at 1000 cd m(-2)), which represents the first example of blue TADF nonconjugated polymer.