Chemical Research in Chinese Universities ›› 2025, Vol. 41 ›› Issue (5): 1173-1185.doi: 10.1007/s40242-025-5175-9

• Articles • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Prediction of Key Properties in Multiple Resonance Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescence Materials Using Lightweight Feature Encoding

YIN Yajun1,2, YIN Lifang2, ZHAO Yi2, GAO Qiang2, YANG Yufei2, HE Tengfei2, ZHANG Zihan3, WANG Jifen1, WU Tongshun3, ZOU Luyi1,2   

  1. 1. School of Resources and Environmental Engineering, Shanghai Polytechnic University, Shanghai Engineering Research Center of Advanced Thermal Functional Materials, Shanghai 201209, P. R. China;
    2. Institute of Theoretical Chemistry, College of Chemistry, Jilin University, Changchun 130021, P. R. China;
    3. Key Laboratory of Functional Materials Physics and Chemistry of Ministry of Education, Jilin Normal University, Changchun 130103, P. R. China
  • Received:2025-08-20 Accepted:2025-09-08 Online:2025-10-01 Published:2025-09-26
  • Contact: WANG Jifen, E-mail: wangjifen@sspu.edu.cn;ZOU Luyi, E-mail: zouly@jlu.edu.cn E-mail:wangjifen@sspu.edu.cn;zouly@jlu.edu.cn
  • Supported by:
    This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 22573039) and the International Science and Technology Cooperation Project of Jilin Provincial Department of Science and Technology, China (No. 20240402047GH).

Abstract: Multiple resonance thermally activated delayed fluorescence (MR-TADF) materials have attracted significant attention in organic electroluminescent devices due to their high exciton utilization efficiency and narrow emission spectra. However, their key performance parameters, singlet-triplet energy gap (ΔEST) and emission spectral full width at half maximum (FWHM), exhibit complex nonlinear relationships with molecular structures. To overcome the challenges of time-consuming, costly experiments and the limitations and insufficient accuracy of theoretical calculations, this study proposes a lightweight prediction framework based on SMILES encoding. By integrating Morgan fingerprints and physicochemical descriptors, end-to-end predictive models for ΔEST and FWHM were established. Skeleton similarity constraints were introduced to prevent data leakage, while feature selection and Bayesian optimization were applied to further enhancing model performance. Several machine learning algorithms were explored, among which the XGBoost model demonstrated the best predictive ability. Shapley additive explanations (SHAP) analysis revealed that ΔEST is mainly associated with electronic distribution, whereas FWHM is influenced by local skeleton structures and polar surface area. This approach achieves high-accuracy predictions without relying on three-dimensional structural information, providing an efficient solution for the rational design of MR-TADF materials.

Key words: Multiple resonance thermally activated delayed fluorescence (MR-TADF), Photophysical property prediction, SMILES, Shapley additive explanations (SHAP)