The MEGA partners held their second year consortium meeting during 25-26 January 2021. Due to the travel restrictions imposed by the on-going Covid-19 pandemic, the meeting was held over Zoom. However, this provided the advantage that 26 experts could participate from Europe and Asia.
Over the two days, the partners took stock of the tasks done so far across the project's different work packages with the following being the main achievements:
WP1 Theory and Screening
WP2 Synthesis
WP3 Characterisation
WP4 Material Testing in Device Structures
WP5 Project Co-ordination, Management and Dissemination
Over the two days, the partners took stock of the tasks done so far across the project's different work packages with the following being the main achievements:
WP1 Theory and Screening
- 60+ new molecules grouped in thirteen (13) families of organic compounds for TADF emitters have been designed (Families 1 – 13).
- 30+ new molecules grouped in six (6) families of organic compounds as potential dyes for lasing applications have been designed (Families A – F).
- Calculations on the new molecules have been done to different levels and are on-going.
- A selection of compounds for TADF and lasing applications has been made.
- Progress has been made in scientific understanding of two important aspects of TADF: i) Replacement of "static" energy diagrams with "dynamical" energy diagrams and ii) TADF in boron nitrogen (BN) based compounds.
WP2 Synthesis
- Synthesis has started of molecules for the thirteen (13) families of organic compounds for TADF emitters (Families 1 – 13).
- Synthesis has started of molecules for the six (6) families of organic compounds as potential dyes for lasing applications (Families A – F).
- An optimized synthetic route has been developed for the preparation of donor-acceptor-donor type TADF emitters using readily available acceptor and donor moieties by efficient Buchwald-Hartwig cross-coupling reactions.
- It was discovered that, for the design and synthesis of stable boron containing emitters, the boron-oxygen bond should be exploited as it gives a higher thermal stability for the target emitters. Such boron-chelate acceptor moieties can be used in various TADF molecular systems as efficient acceptors.
WP3 Characterisation
- A variety of characterisation techniques have been performed on the organic molecules produced for TADF emitters (e.g. Families 1, 2, 3 and 4) and lasing applications.
WP4 Material Testing in Device Structures
- A protocol has been developed for characterising OLED and key device parameters.
- An OLED reference stack has been developed.
- Optical ellipsometry to be used to determine key optical constants for optical simulation of OLED stacks.
WP5 Project Co-ordination, Management and Dissemination
- All deliverables and milestones completed.
- Kick-off and Year 1 meetings held.
- Midterm review held in Nov 2020 and successfully passed.
- 79.7 secondments implemented representing 21.9% of the overall total.
- 11 international journal papers published, which already exceeds project’s overall target.
- 4 conference papers presented.
- Project video has received 420+ views.
- 7 tweets and 13 followers on project twitter account.