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  1. The design of organic light emitting diode (OLED) materials with the potential for exhibiting thermally-activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) is reported. Using computational methods (DFT/TD-DFT) as a guiding tool, six materials with a benzobisoxazole (BBO) core and donor–acceptor–donor architectures were designed by changing the conjugation position of carbazole-substituted phenyl substituents and the type of BBO isomer ( cis - vs. trans -). Experimental steady-state and transient absorption spectroscopic techniques were utilized to probe the TADF activity of these molecules. Each material was then used in host–guest OLED devices as either near-UV dopants or host with low singlet-triplet energy differences. The electroluminescent properties show that when used as dopants these materials provide near-UV emission (CIE y < 0.06 and CIE x = 0.16), whereas when used as hosts, these materials show reduced operating voltages and increased performance efficiencies when compared to commercial materials. 
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  2. This work presents a multiplicative extended Kalman filter (MEKF) for estimating the relative state of a multirotor vehicle operating in a GPS-denied environment. The filter fuses data from an inertial measurement unit and altimeter with relative-pose updates from a keyframe-based visual odometry or laser scan-matching algorithm. Because the global position and heading states of the vehicle are unobservable in the absence of global measurements such as GPS, the filter in this article estimates the state with respect to a local frame that is colocated with the odometry keyframe. As a result, the odometry update provides nearly direct measurements of the relative vehicle pose, making those states observable. Recent publications have rigorously documented the theoretical advantages of such an observable parameterization, including improved consistency, accuracy, and system robustness, and have demonstrated the effectiveness of such an approach during prolonged multirotor flight tests. This article complements this prior work by providing a complete, self-contained, tutorial derivation of the relative MEKF, which has been thoroughly motivated but only briefly described to date. This article presents several improvements and extensions to the filter while clearly defining all quaternion conventions and properties used, including several new useful properties relating to error quaternions and their Euler-angle decomposition. Finally, this article derives the filter both for traditional dynamics defined with respect to an inertial frame, and for robocentric dynamics defined with respect to the vehicle’s body frame, and provides insights into the subtle differences that arise between the two formulations. 
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  3. Abstract

    The use of direct CH arylation cross‐coupling polymerization was evaluated for the synthesis of donor–acceptor conjugated co‐polymers using the novel donor 1,6‐didecylnaphtho[1,2‐b:5,6‐b']difuran and either thieno[3,4‐c]pyrrole‐4,6‐dione (TPD) or 1,4‐diketopyrrolo[3,4‐c]pyrrole (DPP) as the acceptor. Thiophene and furan moieties were used to flank the DPP group and the impact of these heterocycles on the polymers' properties was evaluated. The alkyl chains on the diketopyrrolopyrrole monomers were varied to engineer the solubility and morphology of the materials. All of the polymers have similar optoelectronic properties with narrow optical band gaps around 1.3 eV, which is ideal for solar energy harvesting. Unfortunately, these polymers also had high‐lying highest occupied molecular orbital levels of −4.8 to −5.1, and as a result bulk‐heterojunction photovoltaic cells fabricated using the soluble fullerene derivative PC71BM as the electron‐acceptor and these polymers as donor materials exhibited poor performance due to limited Vocvalues. An examination of the films from these blends indicates that film‐thickness and morphology were also a major hindrance to performance and a potential point of improvement for future materials.

     
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  4. Abstract

    Four cross‐conjugated molecules based on the benzo[1,2‐d:4,5‐d’]bisoxazole (BBO) moiety have been synthesized from a common synthon. Theoretical studies indicated that these cruciforms had highly segregated HOMO and LUMO levels enabling semi‐autonomous tuning of the LUMO level from the HOMO through substitution along the 2,6‐axis. The experimental data confirms that the HOMO levels within these systems varied by 0.3 eV, whereas the LUMO levels varied by over 1.6 eV when the electron‐density along the 2,6‐axis was increased. The introduction of relatively electron‐deficient moieties along the 2,6‐axis resulted in a bathochromic shift in the absorption profiles concurrent with the stabilization of the LUMO. These substituents also prolonged the photoluminescent lifetimes owing to improved intramolecular charge transfer states between the 4,8‐ and 2,6‐ axis. The BBO cruciforms were evaluated as donor materials in organic solar cells (OSC)s, but the energy‐level mismatches and poor thin film morphology led to poor performance. These results indicate that benzobisoxazole cruciforms are a promising platform for the development of tunable materials for use in organic semiconductors, but improvements in the optical, electronic and film‐forming properties are needed to enable their use in efficient OSCs.

     
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