Numerous efforts have been devoted to boost the efficiency of thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) devices; however, strategies to suppress the device efficiency roll-off are still in urgent need. Here, a general and effective approach to suppress the efficiency roll-off of TADF devices is proposed, that is, utilizing TADF materials as the hosts for TADF emitters. Bearing small singlet-triplet splitting (ΔE) with donor and acceptor units, TADF materials as the hosts possess the potential to achieve matched frontier energy levels with the adjacent transporting layers, facilitating balanced charge injection as well as bipolar charge transport mobilities beneficial to the balanced charges transportation. Furthermore, an enhanced Förster energy transfer from the host to the dopant can be anticipated, helpful to reduce the exciton concentration. Based on the principles, a new TADF material based on indeno[2,1-b]carbazole/1,3,5-triazin derivation is synthesized and used as the universal host for the full-color TADF devices. Remarkable low efficiency roll-off was achieved with above 90% of the maximum external quantum efficiencies (EQE's) maintained even at a brightness of 2000 cd/m, along with EQE's of 23.2, 21.0, and 19.2% for orange, green, and sky-blue TADF devices, respectively. Through computational simulation, we identified the suppressed exciton annihilation rates compared with devices adopting conventional hosts. The state-of-the-art low efficiency roll-off of those TADF devices manifests the great potential of such host design strategy, paving an efficient strategy toward their practical application.

Recent research studies on noble-metal-free thermally activated delayed fluorescent (TADF) materials have boosted the efficiencies of organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) to unity. However, the short lifespan still hinders their further practical application. Carrier recombination pathways have been reported to have a significant influence on the efficiencies of TADF devices, though their effects on device lifetimes remain rarely studied. Here, we have designed and synthesized five pyrimidine or pyrazine/carbazole isomers as hosts for TADF OLEDs to explore the inherent role of Langevin recombination (LR) and trap-assisted recombination (TAR) in device lifetimes. It is revealed that for LR dominant devices, lifetimes would increase by reducing the host triplet energy levels, whereas for TAR dominant devices, lifetimes are insensitive to the host triplet excitons as recombination mainly takes place on dopants. Still, LR dominant devices are favored as they offer more room for optimization. We further apply this concept in designing a stable LR dominant blue TADF device, achieving a long LT50 (lifespan up to 50% of the initial luminance) of 269 h and high external quantum efficiency of 17.9% at 1000 cd m–2 simultaneously.

Shallow trap assisted charge transport, fast reverse intersystem crossing of the hosts and efficient host–guest Förster resonant energy transfer in OLEDs can retard the defect formation by inhibiting exciton–polaron annhilation.

Molecular degradation in OLEDs may originate from charge delivery, exciton residence, or a combination of these processes. In this review, the mechanistic study and modeling of the photo- and electrical degradations of OLEDs is introduced.

A nonfullerene acceptor (NFA), named 3,9‐bis(2‐methylene‐(3‐(1,1‐dicyanomethylene)‐indanone))‐5,5,11,11‐tetrakis(4‐hexylphenyl)‐dithieno[2,3‐d:2′,3′‐d′]‐s‐indaceno[1,2‐b:5,6‐b′] dithiophene (ITIC) with the fused aromatic conjugated backbone structure, is an intriguing small molecular semiconductor in the application of organic bulk heterojunction (BHJ) solar cells. However, the underlying spin‐dependent photo‐physics in the photovoltaic process remains deficient. Here, ITIC‐based thin solid film, binary, and ternary organic blends are designed and fabricated with two polymeric donors, poly[(2,6‐(4,8‐bis(5‐(2‐ethylhexyl)thiophen‐2‐yl)‐benzo[1,2‐b:4,5‐b′]‐dithiophene))‐alt‐(5,5‐(1′,3′‐di‐2‐thienyl‐5′,7′‐bis(2‐ethylhexyl)benzo[1′,2′‐c:4′,5′‐c′]dithiophene‐4,8‐dione))] (PBDB‐T) and poly[(2,6‐(4,8‐Bis(3‐((2‐ethylhexyl)oxy)‐phenyl)‐benzo[1,2‐b:4,5‐b′]‐dithiophene))‐alt‐(5,5‐(1′,3′‐di‐2‐thienyl‐5′,7′‐bis(2‐ethylhexyl)benzo[1′,2′‐c:4′,5′‐c′]dithiophene‐4,8‐dione))] (PBPD‐Th). With the spin‐sensitive magneto‐photocurrent and magneto‐electroluminescence measurements, ITIC always exhibits large magnetic field effects with negative signs in the ambient temperature. The effect is attributed to the exciton‐charge reaction. However, both positive and negative signs are detected in the binary and ternary organic blends at small and large fields, respectively. The results elucidate that the mutual combination of the spin‐dependent polaron pair dissociation and exciton‐charge reaction plays a decisive role in the photovoltaic process. Furthermore, with photo‐induced electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) studies, the full width at half maximum (FWHM) of the line shape for the positive magneto‐photocurrent is firmly associated to the magnitude of the effective g‐factor. The present study may shed a new light on the deep understanding of spin‐dependent photo‐physical process in NFA‐based solar cells for organic opto‐spintronic developments.

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The traditional thermal expansion method using a dilatometer fails to accurately determine the original firing temperatures of low‐fired ancient pottery. For this reason, we have developed an improved method of determining firing temperatures for low‐fired pottery. This paper explains the theory of the improved method and presents the reasonably satisfactory results obtained on ancient pottery from the Donghulin site (c. 10 000 bp). The method and the results are very important for the study of ancient pottery culture and clay moulds used for bronze casting.

In the competitive hopping process, carriers occupying states with higher energy levels have higher probabilities and higher rates of hopping to the transport energy.