Project R-11230

Donor-acceptor chromophores for fluorescent near-infrared organic light-emitting diodes (Research)

The rapid development of the science and technology of organic semiconductors has led to the mass application of organic lightemitting diodes (OLEDs) in television monitors of outstanding quality as well as in a large variety of smaller displays, while introduction of the technology to the illumination sector is imminent. The requirements of such applications for emission in the visible range are well tuned to the opto-electronic properties of typical organic semiconductors. However, developing materials suited for efficient near-infrared (NIR) emission – desirable to enable new classes of applications spanning from through-space, short-range communication to biomedical sensors, night vision and more generally security applications – is considerably less straightforward. In this project, the challenge to achieve efficient NIR emission from all-organic π-conjugated systems is tackled by the judicious (computationally guided) design and synthesis of donor-acceptor type chromophores affording high photo- and electroluminescence quantum yields through either classical fluorescence or by leveraging triplets in materials optimized for thermally activated delayed fluorescence. All novel fluorophores will be thoroughly characterized from a structural and photophysical point of view and then implemented in OLED devices. As such, we aim at a substantial contribution to the transition from a purely academic field to real-life applications with an economic and societal added value.

01 November 2020 - 31 October 2022