[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-seo-445496-105":3,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":81,"doc-detail-445496-en":130},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"ok",{"site_id":7,"language":8,"slug":9,"title":10,"keywords":11,"description":12,"schema_data":13,"social_meta":74,"head_meta":76,"extra_data":78,"updated_unix":80},105,"en","hydrogen-bonding-environment-suppresses-thermally-activated-delayed-fluorescence","Hydrogen-bonding environment suppresses thermally activated delayed fluorescence","","Hydrogen-bonding surroundings critically control thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) used in advanced OLED displays, yet brightness is highly sensitive to microscopic conditions. The study shows that protic hydrogens directly bind the photoexcited TADF emitter, deforming it from its light-producing geometry and quenching emission. This quenching is universal across multiple TADF molecules. Steady-state, time-resolved, kinetic isotope, and ultrafast spectroscopy link the effect to hydrogen-bonding perturbations of excited-state energetics and D–A conformations, stressing local microenvironment control for high-efficiency next-generation OLEDs.",{"@graph":14,"@context":73},[15,34,56],{"@type":16,"itemListElement":17},"BreadcrumbList",[18,23,27,31],{"item":19,"name":20,"@type":21,"position":22},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",1,{"item":24,"name":25,"@type":21,"position":26},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":28,"name":29,"@type":21,"position":30},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/","Research & Report",3,{"item":32,"name":10,"@type":21,"position":33},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/hydrogen-bonding-environment-suppresses-thermally-activated-delayed-fluorescence/445496/",4,{"url":32,"name":10,"@type":35,"image":36,"author":41,"headline":10,"publisher":44,"fileFormat":47,"inLanguage":8,"description":12,"dateModified":48,"datePublished":49,"encodingFormat":47,"isAccessibleForFree":50,"interactionStatistic":51},"DigitalDocument",{"url":37,"@type":38,"width":39,"height":40},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/hydrogen-bonding-environment-suppresses-thermally-activated-delayed-fluorescence/445496.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":42,"@type":43},"Patrick","Person",{"url":19,"name":45,"@type":46},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-05","2026-09-29",true,{"@type":52,"interactionType":53,"userInteractionCount":55},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":54},"ViewAction",7,{"@type":57,"mainEntity":58},"FAQPage",[59,65,69],{"name":60,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":62},"How does a hydrogen-bonding environment affect TADF emission in OLEDs?","Question",{"text":63,"@type":64},"Protic hydrogens interact directly with the photoexcited TADF emitter, distorting the molecular geometry away from light-emitting conformations and draining emission. This suppression is linked to perturbed excited-state energetics and unfavorable D–A structures.","Answer",{"name":66,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":67},"Is the quenching effect limited to a single TADF molecule?",{"text":68,"@type":64},"No. The quenching effect is described as universal across a range of TADF molecules, indicating generality of hydrogen-bonding–driven emission suppression.",{"name":70,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":71},"What experimental evidence identifies the role of solvent protons?",{"text":72,"@type":64},"A clear kinetic isotope effect confirms that solvent protons participate directly in hydrogen-bonding interactions with the photoexcited emitter. Ultrafast spectroscopy further resolves fast D-to-A intramolecular charge transfer and its slowing in viscous and protic media.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":32,"og:type":75,"og:title":10,"og:site_name":45,"og:description":12},"article",{"robots":77,"canonical":32},"index,follow",{"doc_id":79,"site_id":7},445496,1790746169,{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":83},"success",[84,88,92,96,101,106,110,114,119,122,126],{"id":22,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":85,"show_sort_weight":86,"slug":87},"Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":26,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":89,"show_sort_weight":90,"slug":91},"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":33,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":93,"show_sort_weight":94,"slug":95},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":97,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":98,"show_sort_weight":99,"slug":100},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":102,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":103,"show_sort_weight":104,"slug":105},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":55,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":107,"show_sort_weight":108,"slug":109},"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":111,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":29,"show_sort_weight":112,"slug":113},8,30,"research-report",{"id":115,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":116,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":118},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":117,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":120,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":121},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":123,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":124,"show_sort_weight":123,"slug":125},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":127,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":128,"show_sort_weight":97,"slug":129},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":131},{"doc_id":79,"user_id":132,"nickname":42,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":111,"category_name":29,"doc_title":10,"doc_description":12,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":55,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":22,"is_downloadable":22,"audit_status":22,"page_count":123,"language":139,"language_code":8,"site_id":7,"html_lang":8,"table_of_contents":140,"faqs":141,"seo_title":142,"seo_description":12,"update_tm":143,"read_time":144},549758146520,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/avatar/80002397d8c0411e94?_k=1775819394049821470","Showcasing the first publication from Dr. Palas Roy’s research laboratory, Department of Chemistry, Indian Institute of Technology Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India.  \nHydrogen-bonding environment suppresses thermally activated delayed fluorescence  \nThermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) emitters power modern OLED displays, yet their brightness is extremely sensitive to their microscopic surroundings. We show that protic hydrogens directly interact with the photoexcited TADF emitter, distorting it out of its light-producing geometry and silently draining its emission. Strikingly, this quenching effect is universal across a range of TADF molecules, underscoring the generality of the phenomenon. Our findings reveal that precise control of local hydrogen-bonding environments is essential for achieving brighter, ultra-efficient next-generation OLED technologies.  \nImage reproduced by permission of Sushree Suhani Puhan from Chem. Sci., 2026, 17, 187.  \nImage created with Google Gemini.  \nAs featured in:  \nSee Palas Roy et al., Chem. Sci., 2026, 17, 187.  \n[rsc.li/chemical-science](rsc.li/chemical-science)  \nRegistered charity number: 207890  \nChemical Science  \nEDGE ARTICLE  \nCite this: Chem. Sci., 2026, 17, 187  \nAll publication charges for this article have been paid for by the Royal Society of Chemistry  \nReceived 24th July 2025  \nAccepted 24th November 2025 DOI: 10.1039/d5sc05548b[rsc.li/chemical-science](rsc.li/chemical-science)  \nHydrogen-bonding environment suppresses thermally activated delayed fluorescence  \nSushree Suhani Puhan,a Laxmipriya Dashbc and Palas Roy  *a  \nThermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) is a promising innovation in display technology where thenonemissive triplet excitons can be thermally converted back into emissive singlet excitons through reverse intersystem crossing. Organic TADF emitters often feature donor–acceptor (D–A) architectures, whose conformations critically influence emission dynamics and efficiency. Introducing intramolecular hydrogen-bonding between D and A moieties is an emerging strategy to rigidify the structure and improve TADF emission. However the influence of environmental factors on such hydrogen-bonding interactions remains unclear. Here we investigate the impact of the hydrogen-bonding medium on TADF emission using steady-state and time-resolved emission spectroscopy. Protic solvents universally quench TADF emission, correlating with reduced prompt emission lifetimes, while delayed lifetimes remain largely unchanged. A clear kinetic isotope effect unequivocally confirms that solvent protons directly participate in hydrogen-bonding interactions with the photoexcited emitter, thereby perturbing its excited-state energetics. Ultrafast spectroscopy reveals a picosecond D-to-A intramolecular charge transfer event that slows in viscous media indicating a D–A torsional relaxation. The relaxation time further slows in a protic environment highlighting the role of solvent-emitter hydrogen-bonding interactions resulting in unfavourable excited state D–A conformations and diminished emission. These findings underscore the importance of microenvironment control in designing efficient TADF emitters for display applications and photocatalysis.  \nIntroduction  \nDeveloping new materials for display and lighting technologies is a key challenge for the 21st century. The light emission process in an electroluminescent device involves injecting opposite charges which combine to form singlet and tripletexcitons in a 1 : 3 ratio.1 In most materials, triplets do not emit light, but for high efficiency, the triplets need to be harvested to contribute to light emission. The state-of-the-art organic lightemitting diode (OLED) technology achieves high efficiency by a process called thermally activated delayed 􀀁uorescence (TADF), which offers a tantalizing solution of efficiently converting these non-emissive triplets into emissive singlets thermally owing to nearly equivalent singlet and triplet energy levels.2–4 ","cbCaioOiOiWgbLeL","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaioOiOiWgbLeL","pdf",1745707,"English","# Introduction\n## Hydrogen-bonding in TADF emission control\n## Protic solvent quenching and kinetic isotope effect\n## Ultrafast charge-transfer and D–A relaxation\n## Importance of microenvironment control","[{\"question\":\"How does a hydrogen-bonding environment affect TADF emission in OLEDs?\",\"answer\":\"Protic hydrogens interact directly with the photoexcited TADF emitter, distorting the molecular geometry away from light-emitting conformations and draining emission. This suppression is linked to perturbed excited-state energetics and unfavorable D–A structures.\"},{\"question\":\"Is the quenching effect limited to a single TADF molecule?\",\"answer\":\"No. The quenching effect is described as universal across a range of TADF molecules, indicating generality of hydrogen-bonding–driven emission suppression.\"},{\"question\":\"What experimental evidence identifies the role of solvent protons?\",\"answer\":\"A clear kinetic isotope effect confirms that solvent protons participate directly in hydrogen-bonding interactions with the photoexcited emitter. Ultrafast spectroscopy further resolves fast D-to-A intramolecular charge transfer and its slowing in viscous and protic media.\"}]","Hydrogen-bonding environment suppresses thermally activated delayed fluorescence | PDF",1790712279,25]