Multiple Fusion Strategy for High-Performance Yellow OLEDs with Full Width at Half Maximums Down to 23 nm and External Quantum Efficiencies up to 37.4%

The pursuit of ideal narrowband yellow multiple resonance (MR) emitters is hampered by the mutual constraints of effective spectral redshift and maintaining a small full width at half maximum (FWHM) value. Here, a novel multiple fusion molecular design strategy is reported to break this trade-off. Compared with the selected narrowband parent core, the specific multiple MR effects in target molecules can simultaneously extend the pi-conjugation length, increase the rigidity of the structure, and reduce the vibrational frequency. Proof-of-the-concept emitters BN-DICz and DBN-ICz show bright yellowish green to yellow emissions in dilute toluene solutions with peaks at 533-542 nm and extremely small FWHMs of <= 20 nm. Notably, BN-DICz-based electroluminescent device exhibits excellent efficiencies of 37.4%, 136.6 cd A(-1), and 119.2 lm W-1 with an FWHM of merely 23 nm, representing the best performance for yellow MR organic light-emitting diodes.