MR-TADF liquid crystals: towards self assembling host–guest mixtures showing narrowband emission from the mesophase

Abstract

Creating (room temperature) liquid crystalline TADF materials that retain the photophysical properties of the monomolecular TADF emitters remains a formidable challenge. The strong intramolecular interactions required for formation of a liquid crystal usually adversely affect the photophysical properties and balancing them is not yet possible. In this work, we present a novel host–guest approach enabling unperturbed, narrowband emission from an MR-TADF emissive core from strongly aggregated columnar hexagonal (Col_h) liquid crystals. By modifying the DOBNA scaffold with mesogenic groups bearing alkoxy chains of different lengths, we created a library of Col_h liquid crystals featuring phase ranges >100 K and room temperature mesomorphism. Expectedly, these exhibit broad excimer emission from their neat films, so we exploited their high singlet (S₁ ∼2.9 eV) and triplet (T₁ ∼2.5 eV) energies by doping them with the MR-TADF guest BCzBN. Upon excitation of the host, efficient Förster Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET) resulted in almost exclusive emission from BCzBN. The ability of the liquid crystallinity of the host to not be adversely affected by the presence of BCzBN is demonstrated as is the localization of the guest molecules within the aliphatic chain network of the host, resulting in extremely narrowband emission (FWHM = 14–15 nm). With this work we demonstrate a strategy for the self-assembly of materials with previously mutually incompatible properties in emissive liquid crystalline systems: strong aggregation in Col_h mesophases, and narrowband emission from a MR-TADF core.