Deep Blue
Thermally activated delayed
fluorescence (TADF) compounds
bearing two Oxadiazole Acceptors
• Harvesting of 100% of excitons via TADF for OLED devices
• Inexpensive organic emitters
• Environmentally more benign
• Deep Blue emission colour
• Ambipolar characteristic
The Technology Opportunity
The use of TADF emitters represents a paradigm shift in emitter development wherein
inexpensive small molecule organic compounds can now be used to harvest 100% of the excitons
in an electroluminescent device and so obtain excellent power efficiencies. We have developed a
series of deep blue TADF emitters for Organic Light-Emitting Diodes (OLED).
Key Benefits
TADF allows purely organic emitters to harvest the triplet states as an alternative to the
existing heavy-metal based phosphorescent OLEDs, which are known to be expensive and
environmentally hostile. The emitters contain both carbazole donors and oxadiazole acceptors to
effectively form excitons by a charge trapping mechanism. The blue colour emission wavelength
of these emitters can be a valuable asset as there is currently a dearth of bright blue-emitting
phosphorescent emitters for OLEDs.
Applications
The invention is primarily used for blue-emitting OLEDs or, when operating in parallel with
green and red emitters, for energy-efficient white lighting devices. Due to the nature of TADF,
potential applications also include temperature or oxygen sensors.
The University filed UK patent application number 1507340.6 on 29th April 2015. The University
research group involved continues to perform research & development in this area of chemistry. The University would welcome enquiries from commercial parties interested in developing this
chemistry on an industrial scale.
If you would like to explore this technology transfer opportunity in more detail, please contact:
Alistair Main, The Knowledge Transfer Centre,
University of St Andrews, The Gateway,
St Andrews, Fife, KY16 9RJ, UK.
Tel: +44 (0) 1334 462165
Email: [email protected]
Additional Information will be made available under a Confidentiality Agreement
Produced by University of St Andrews Print & Design, September 2015
The University of St Andrews is a charity registered in Scotland, No: SC013532