Triphenyl phosphine oxide-bridged bipolar host materials for green and red phosphorescent organic light-emitting diodes

Two wide band gap functional compounds of phenylbis(4-(spiro [fluorene-9,9'-xanthen]-2-yl)phenyl)phosphine oxide (2SFOPO) and (4-(9-ethyl-9H- carbazol-3-yl)phenyl)(phenyl)(4-(spiro[fluorene-9,9′-xanthen]-2-yl)phenyl)phosphine oxide (SFOPO-CZ) were designed, synthesized and characterized. Their thermal, photophysical, electrochemical properties and device applications were further investigated to correlate the chemical structure of bipolar host materials with the electroluminescent performance for phosphorescent organic light-emitting diodes (PhOLEDs). Both of them show high thermal stability with glass transition temperatures in a range of 105–122 °C and thermal decomposition temperatures at 5% weight loss in a range of 406–494 °C. The optical band gaps of compound 2SFOPO and SFOPO-CZ in CH₂Cl₂ solution are 3.46 and 3.35 eV, and their triplet energy levels are 2.51 eV and 2.52 eV, respectively. The high photoluminescent quantum efficiency of emissive layer of doped green device up to 50% is obtained. Employing the developed materials, efficient green and red PhOLED in simple device configurations have been demonstrated. As a result, the green PhOLEDs of compound SFOPO-CZ doped with tris(2-phenylpyridine) iridium shows electroluminescent performance with a maximum current efficiency (CE_max) of 52.83 cd A⁻¹, maximum luminance of 34,604 cd/m², maximum power efficiency (PE_max) of 39.50 lm W⁻¹ and maximum external quantum efficiency (EQE_max) of 14.1%. The red PhOLED hosted by compound 2SFOPO with bis(2-phenylpyridine)(acetylacetonato) iridium(III) as the guest exhibits a CE_max of 20.99 cd A⁻¹, maximum luminance of 33,032 cd/m², PE_max of 20.72 lm W⁻¹ and EQE_max of 14.0%. Compound SFOPO-CZ exhibits better green device performance, while compound 2SFOPO shows better red device performance in PhOLEDs.     

Quinolyl functionalized spiro[fluorene-9,9′-xanthene] host materials with bipolar characteristics for green and red phosphorescent organic light-emitting diodes

Spiro[fluorene-9,9′-xanthene] (SFX) bipolar hosts bearing one, two and three quinolyl substituents, namely SFX-bPy, SFX-DbPy and SFX-TbPy, were designed and synthesized for phosphorescent organic light emitting diodes (PhOLEDs). The successive substitution of quinoline at 2′, 2 and 7′ positions of SFX results in reduced LUMO energy levels while leaving the HOMO energy levels nearly intact. The impact of quinoline substitution in these SFX-based hosts on PhOLED performance was investigated in detail through green and red model devices. For the green emitting devices, the device based on SFX-bPy host showed better performance (23.6 cd A⁻¹, 23.4 lm W⁻¹, 6.3%) due to high triplet energy level (T₁) and balanced carriers-transporting ability. In contrast, for the red PhOLED devices, the device hosted by SFX-DbPy displayed higher performance (15.8 cd A⁻¹, 16.0 lm W⁻¹, 9.1%), attributable to the well matched T₁ and separated frontier molecular orbitals. This work thus sheds light on the rational design of SFX-based bipolar hosts for more efficient PhOLEDs.     

Carbazole-bridged triphenylamine-bipyridine bipolar hosts for high-efficiency low roll-off multi-color PhOLEDs

Three new bipolar molecules composed of carbazole, triarylamine, and bipyridine were synthesized and utilized as host materials in multi-color phosphorescent OLEDs (PhOLEDs). These carbazole-based materials comprise a hole-transport triarylamine at C3 and an electron-transport 2,4′- or 4,4′-bipyridine at N9. The different bipyridine isomers and linking topology of the bipyridine with respect to carbazole N9 not only allows fine-tuning of physical properties but also imparts conformational change which subsequently affects molecular packing and carrier transport properties in the solid state. PhOLEDs were fabricated using green [(ppy)₂Ir(acac)], yellow [(bt)₂Ir(acac)], and red [(mpq)₂Ir(acac)] as doped emitters, which showed low driving voltage, high external quantum efficiency (EQE), and extremely low efficiency roll-off. Among these new bipolar materials, the 2Cz-44Bpy-hosted device doping with 10% (ppy)₂Ir(acac) as green emitting layer showed a high EQE of 22% (79.8 cd A⁻¹) and power efficiency (PE) of 102.5 lm W⁻¹ at a practical brightness of 100 cd m⁻². In addition, the device showed limited efficiency roll-off (21.6% EQE) and low driving voltage (2.8 V) at a practical brightness of 1000 cd m⁻².     

Novel diarylborane–phenanthroimidazole hybrid bipolar host materials for high-performance red,yellow and green electrophosphorescent devices

In this work, two novel bipolar host materials p-BPPI and m-BPPI containing phenanthroimidazole/dimesitylborane (Mes₂B) with para- and meta-linkage have been designed, synthesized and characterized. The appending Mes₂B moiety improves the thermal stability, electrochemical stability and carrier injection/transport ability of both target compounds. The test results of time-of-flight (TOF) and single-carrier devices show that both the new hosts possess bipolar charge-transporting characteristics. As a result, series of highly efficient green (66.3 cd A⁻¹, 63.1 lm W⁻¹, 18.2%), yellow (55.2 cd A⁻¹, 66.6 lm W⁻¹, 14.5%) and red (20.1 cd A⁻¹, 20.4 lm W⁻¹, 13.5%) PhOLEDs are achieved by using them as the universal host materials. The results indicate that bipolar host p-BPPI and m-BPPI have high potential in fabricating various color OLEDs for displays and lighting applications. Our study further enriches the selection of D and A group for phosphorescent host materials. The relationship between molecular structures and optoelectronic properties is discussed experimentally and theoretically.     

Solution processed single-emissive-layer white organic light-emitting diodes based on fluorene host: Balanced consideration for color quality and electroluminescent efficiency

Cost-effective fabrication of white organic light-emitting diodes (WOLED) is meaningful toward commercial application of environment-friendly solid-state lighting sources. Electroluminescent efficiency and color quality are two opposite performance characteristics facing solution processed WOLEDs requiring balanced consideration. Herein, a recently synthesized molecule of 4,4’-(9,9’-(1,3-phenylene)bis(9H-fluorene-9,9-diyl))bis(N,N-diphenylaniline) (DTPAFB) is introduced as a host material for solution processed all-phosphor WOLEDs, embracing four well-known molecules which are blue iridium (III) bis(2-(4,6-difluorophenyl)pyridinato-N,C²)(picolinate) (FIrpic), green iridium (III) bis[2-(2-pyridinyl-N)phenyl-C](2,4-pentanedionato-O²,O⁴) [Ir(ppy)₂(acac)], and orange iridium (III) bis(2-phenyl-benzothiazole-C²,N)(acetylacetonate) [Ir(bt)₂(acac)] plus a home-made red phosphor of iridium (III) tris(1-(2,6-dimethylphenoxy)-4-(4-chlorophenyl)phthalazine) [Ir(MPCPPZ)₃]. Illumination quality white light with high brightness, high efficiency, suitable correlated color temperature (CCT), high color-rendering index (CRI), and stable electroluminescent (EL) emission is obtained. A stable white emission with a CRI over 70, Commission Internationale de L'Eclairage (CIE) of (0.37, 0.42), and high EL efficiency of 19.6 lm W⁻¹ at high luminance of 2000 cd m⁻² for blue/orange complementary color WOLEDs is demonstrated. The optimized red/green/blue three primary color WOLEDs show improved CRI up to 81, moderate high efficiency of 25.8 cd A⁻¹, 14.4 lm W⁻¹, and EQE of 13.9%. Furthermore, the red/green/blue/orange four primary color WOLEDs show the optional balance between color quality and EL efficiency with high CRI of around 81–83 and medium CCT of 3755–3929 K which is warm and soft to human eyes. At an illumination relevant luminance of 1000 cd m⁻², the total power efficiency reaches 33.6 lm W⁻¹, and still remains 30.2 lm W⁻¹ at 3000 cd m⁻², approaching the efficiency of state-of-the-art fluorescent-tube (40–70 lm W⁻¹), potentially suitable as an environment-friendly solid-state lighting source. This work indicates that developing high performance host materials and highly efficient phosphors and carefully combining them with common phosphors is an effective way toward high performance WOLEDs.     

Simple molecular structure design of iridium(III) complexes: Achieving highly efficient non-doped devices with low efficiency roll-off

To construct efficient emitters suitable for non-doped devices and deeply understand the relationship between structures and performances, we designed and synthesized two heteroleptic iridium(III) complexes based on 1,2-diphenyl-1H-benzoimidazole (PBI) ligands whose substituents are varied simply from methyl (complex 2) to tert-butyl groups (complex 3). The parent complex 1 with non-substituent on PBI ligand has also been presented for a better comparison. Their photophysical, electrochemical and electroluminescent (EL) performances are investigated systematically. Despite their structural modification, all complexes exhibit almost identical emission and excited-state characters, which are rationalized by the quantum-chemical calculations. However, the obvious differences on device performances are found. Non-doped device employing 3 as emitting layer displays the highest EL performance with maximum current efficiency (η_{c, max}) of 18.6 cd A⁻¹ and power efficiency (η_{p, max}) of 16.2 lm W⁻¹ accompanied by low efficiency roll-off values, which is much higher than those of complexes 1 and 2. The obtained results herein suggest that introduction of the simple substituent into PBI ligand is an effective and feasible approach to develop highly efficient non-doped phosphors.     

Carbazole-pyridine pyrroloquinoxaline/benzothiadiazine 1,1-dioxide based bipolar hosts for efficient red PhOLEDs

Two novel bipolar hosts Cbz-Py-PQ and Cbz-Py-SA have been designed, synthesized, and eventually successfully used for fabrication of red phosphorescent organic light-emitting diodes (PhOLEDs). Considering higher hole mobility than that of electron mobility in most of the bipolar host with 1:1 donor: acceptor ratio, herein we have made it 1:2 by linking carbazole (donor core) to pyrroloquinoxaline/benzothiadiazine 1,1-dioxide (acceptor core) through pyridine (acceptor core) featuring donor-acceptor-acceptor (D-A-A) architecture. Structure-property-performance relationship have been realized through evaluation of thermal, photophysical and electrochemical properties of both the molecules. Cbz-Py-PQ hosted red PhOLED revealed maximum efficiencies of 16.4%, 9.6 cd A⁻¹ and 9.4 lm W⁻¹ with maximum luminance of 20753 cd m⁻² at 11.0 V.     

Tuning electron injection/transporting properties of 9,10-diphenylanthracene based electron transporters via optimizing the number of peripheral pyridine for highly efficient fluorescent OLEDs

By incorporating different number of pyridine rings to the periphery of the 9,10-diphenylanthracene (DPA) core, four new pyridine-containing DPA derivatives, 3-(4-(10-phenylanthracen-9-yl)phenyl)pyridine (AnPy), 9,10-bis(4-(pyridin-3-yl)phenyl)anthracene (AnDPy), 3,3'-((2-(pyridin-3-yl)anthracene-9,10-diyl)bis(4,1-phenylene))dipyridine (AnTPy), 3,3'-(9,10-bis(4-(pyridin-3-yl)phenyl)anthracene-2,6-diyl)dipyridine (AnFPy) were designed and synthesized as electron transporters. Their photophysical properties, energy levels and electron mobilities can be readily regulated through tuning the quantity of the pyridine ring. Through optimizing electron injection/transporting properties, AnTPy exhibits not only a suitable lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) energy level for electron injection into light-emitting layer (EML), but also a relatively high electron mobility of around 10⁻³ cm² V⁻¹ s⁻¹, which is about two orders of magnitude higher than that of the widely used material Alq₃. As expected, the blue fluorescent OLEDs with AnPy, AnTPy and AnFPy as an electron-transporting layer (ETL) exhibited superior performance compared to that using Alq₃, remarkably lowering the driving voltages and improving efficiencies. In particular, the device with AnTPy as an ETL showed a maximum current efficiency of 14.4 cd A⁻¹, a maximum power efficiency of 12.1 lm W⁻¹, a maximum external quantum efficiency (EQE) of 8.15% and low efficiency roll-off even at an illumination-relevant luminance of 10,000 cd m⁻². These results clearly demonstrated that tuning electron injection/transporting properties by optimizing the number of peripheral electron-withdrawing groups was an efficient strategy to achieve high-performance ETMs.     

Novel benzothiadiazine 1,1-dioxide based bipolar host materials for efficient red phosphorescent organic light emitting diodes

In this work, three novel bipolar host materials TPA-SA, 3CBZ-SA and 4CBZ-SA have been designed and synthesized by incorporating triphenyl amine and carbazole as donor and benzothiadiazine 1,1-dioxide as an acceptor. These molecules exhibit moderately high triplet energies and bipolar carrier transport characteristics (ambipolarity) which is useful for the exothermic energy transfer to the dopants and also for the balanced carrier injection/transport in the emissive layers. These materials exhibited good performances in PhOLEDs and furnished external quantum efficiency in the range of 10.0–15.0%. Notably, a red phosphorescent device using TPA-SA as the host doped with Ir(pq)₂(acac) exhibited a maximum EQE, power efficiency and current efficiency of 15.0%, 16.0 lm/W, and 25.3 cd A⁻¹, respectively.     

Manipulating the LUMO distribution of quinoxaline-containing architectures to design electron transport materials: Efficient blue phosphorescent organic light-emitting diodes

A series of new quinoxaline-containing compounds, namely, 2,3,6,7-tetrakis(3-(pyridin-3-yl)phenyl)quinoxaline (Tm3PyQ), 2,3,6,7-tetrakis(3-(pyridin-4-yl)phenyl)quinoxaline (Tm4PyQ), 1,4-bis(2,3-dimethyl-7-(pyridin-3-yl)quinoxalin-6-yl)benzene (3PyDQB), and 1,4-bis(2,3-dimethyl-7-(pyridin-4-yl)quinoxalin-6-yl)benzene (4PyDQB) were designed and synthesized as electronic transporting materials. The lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) distributions of these compounds vary with the locations of quinoxaline moieties, which result in adjustable intermolecular charge-transfer integrals. All the compounds exhibit favorable electron affinity (2.73–2.88 eV) and good thermostability (glass transition temperatures in the range of 112–148 °C). Using these compounds as electron transport layers, the bis(4,6-(difluorophenyl)pyridinato-N,C^2′)picolinate iridium(Ⅲ) (Firpic)-based blue phosphorescent organic light emitting diodes (PhOLEDs) achieve good performances with a maximum current efficiency (η_c,max) of 30.2 cd A⁻¹ and a maximum external quantum efficiency (η_ext,max) of 14.2%. Moreover, these efficiencies reveal small roll-offs at high luminance.     

Highly efficient,solution-processed orange–red phosphorescent OLEDs by using new iridium phosphor with thieno[3,2-c]pyridine derivative as cyclometalating ligand

A new orange iridium phosphor of (EtPy)₂Ir(acac) with thieno[3,2-c]pyridine derivative as cyclometalating ligand was designed and synthesized. The combination of thieno[3,2-c]pyridine with rigid fluorene moiety enlarged the π conjugation of ligand, and consequently caused the peak emission of (EtPy)₂Ir(acac) red-shift to 588 nm. By using (EtPy)₂Ir(acac) as the orange phosphor, the fully solution-processed PhOLEDs were fabricated with the following device configuration: ITO/PEDOT:PSS/PVK: PBD: (EtPy)₂Ir(acac)/CsF/Al. With PEDOT:PSS 8000 as the hole-injecting material, the orange device achieved a maximum current efficiency of 13.4 cd A⁻¹, a maximum power efficiency of 5.9 lm W⁻¹ and a maximum external quantum efficiency (EQE) of 11.2% with a CIE coordinate of (0.62, 0.38) that falls into the orange–red region. Moreover, at high luminance of 1000 cd m⁻², the device still remained high current efficiency of 8.7 cd A⁻¹ and EQE of 7.3%. To the best of our knowledge, these efficiencies were among the highest ever reported for solution-processed orange–red PhOLEDs.     

Efficient,color-stable and high color-rendering-index white organic light-emitting diodes employing full thermally activated delayed fluorescence system

High efficiency, high color rendering index (CRI) and excellent color-stability are important requirements for high-performance white organic light emitting diodes (WOLEDs). To realize these issues for the WOLEDs based on the full thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) system, we constructed WOLED devices by employing CDBP:PO-T2T exciplex as the host, while 2CzPN and AnbTPA as blue and red dopants, respectively. We carefully optimize the device to realize balanced carrier transporting property of each emitting layer and good exciton confinement in the device. As a result, the WOLED achieves stable white emission with a high CRI of 82, a CIE coordinate of (0.33, 0.38) at a luminance of 1000 cd m⁻², and a small CIE variation value of (0.00, 0.02) in the luminance range of 100–3000 cd m⁻². It also demonstrates high maximum forward-viewing external quantum efficiency of 19.2%, current efficiency of 36.7 cd A⁻¹ and power efficiency of 46.2 lm W⁻¹. Our work presents a novel and useful approach to develop highly efficient, color-stable and high-CRI WOLEDs through the full TADF mechanism.     

Host Material for Multi-Color Display with High and Stable Electro-Phosphorescent Efficiencies: Meta-Linkage for Balanced Hole and Electron Injection

Novel host materials and their molecular design methods for phosphorescent materials are crucial for the application of phosphorescent organic light emitting diodes (PhOLEDs), which require balanced carrier injection and sufficient triplet energy levels (E_T). Herein, two host materials, namely PPI22PPPBO and PPI33PPPBO, are designed by varying the linkage of benzoxazole (PBO) and phenanthroimidazole (PPI) groups with appropriate E_T for green, yellow, and red phosphors. The meta-link PPI33PPPBO is not only of smaller π-conjugation, but also of more ordered face-to-face stacking for enhanced and more balanced carrier mobility. As a result, the green, yellow, and red PhOLEDs utilizing PPI33PPPBO as host materials show low turn-on voltages of 2.8 V. The maximum external quantum efficiency (EQE_max) of the corresponding devices reaches 22.8%, 26.7%, and 17.6%, which is superior to that of the traditional host materials CBP and mCP, showing great application potential. More importantly, when the luminance is 1000 cd m⁻², their EQE can still be as high as 21.9%, 25.5%, and 16.4%, corresponding to negligible efficiency roll-offs of only 3.9%, 4.5%, and 6.8%. To the best of authors knowledge, it is the first time that PBO is applied to PhOLED host materials using a twisted connection method.     

High performance doping-free WOLEDs based on rationally designed asymmetric orange-red Ir(III) emitter with balanced charge mobility

Doping-free organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) have attracted continuous attention owing to reduced phase separation, better repeatability, and low cost. Despite demonstrating great potential for white OLEDs (WOLEDs), development of phosphorescent materials capable of achieving high performance with low voltage, high luminance, and low efficiency roll-off simultaneously, still remains a significant challenge. Herein, we design three orange-red Ir(III) phosphors employing functionalized 1,2-diphenylbenzimidazole as main ligands. Clear relationship between structures and electroluminescence (EL)-performances has been established by comprehensively studying their emission properties and intrinsic carrier transporting abilities. Designed phosphor SFIrbiq with spirobifluorene moiety showing negligible intermolecular interactions and balanced carrier transporting ability, not only achieves favorable monochromatic doping-free device but also high-performance doping-free WOLEDs. Optimized WOLED realizes low voltages (2.5 V at 1 cd m⁻², 3.3 V at 100 cd m⁻², and 4.2 V at 1000 cd m⁻²), maximum brightness of 34 505 cd m⁻² and efficiencies of 24.2 cd A⁻¹, 21.7 lm W⁻¹, 10.3%. Such doping-free hybrid WOLED also achieves low efficiency roll-off of 5% for external quantum efficiency (EQE) at 1000 cd m⁻². The device performance can be further improved by employing doping-free all-phosphorescent device structure, achieving maximum efficiencies of 33.3 cd A⁻¹, 32.4 lm W⁻¹, and 16.9%. The results are promising among reported doping-free three-color WOLEDs, paving a feasible way to development of efficient Ir(III) phosphors and doping-free WOLEDs.     

1,2-diphenylbenzimidazole-triarylamine hybrided bipolar host materials employing fluorene as bridge for RYB and white electrophosphorescent devices

Four novel bipolar hosts (DTAFNBI, m-DTAFNBI, DTAFCBI and m-DTAFCBI) comprising a hole-transport ditolylphenylamino donor and an electron-transport 1,2-diphenylbenzimidazole acceptor connected via a fluorene spacer were synthesized and characterized. Through the different linkage topologies of phenylbenzimidazole, the thermal, photophysical, and electrochemical properties can be fine-tuned. The saturated fluorene spacer along with the ditolylphenylamino donor and the phenylbenzimidazole acceptor endowed high triplet energies (E_T = 2.47–2.62 eV, recorded in neat film at 20 K) and bipolar transporting abilities. Furthermore, the tetragonal geometry given by the sp³-hybridized C9 of fluorene encumbered intermolecular packing and led to excellent thermal and morphological stabilities (T_d = 379–392 °C, corresponding 5% weight loss; T_g = 148–162 °C). As a result, these bipolar materials were utilized as universal hosts for red, yellow, and blue (RYB) phosphorescent OLEDs, showing maximum external quantum efficiencies (η_ext) of 9.6%, 14.7%, and 18.9% for blue (FIrpic), yellow (m-(Tpm)₂Ir(acac) and red [Os(bpftz)₂(PPhMe₂)₂, OS1], respectively. In addition, white organic light-emitting diodes combining a blue emitter (FIrpic) and yellow emitter m-(Tpm)₂Ir(acac) and a red emitter (OS1) within a single emitting layer were also fabricated which also exhibited good efficiencies (9.5–13.7%, 15.1–23.5 cd A⁻¹, 13.3–23.9 lm W⁻¹) with relatively low efficiency roll off.     

Highly phosphorescent platinum(II) complexes based on rigid unsymmetric tetradentate ligands

A new class of highly phosphorescent Pt(II) complexes (Pt1–Pt3) based on rigid unsymmetric tetradentate ligands (L1-L3) were designed and synthesized. L1-L3 ligands are an analogue to N,N-di(2-phenylpyrid-6-yl)aniline (L) except that one coordination phenyl group in L is replaced by other motifs with different electron donating/accepting capabilities. The effect associated with the modulation of a single coordination group within each ligand on the photophysical and electroluminescent properties of Pt1–Pt3 was investigated systematically. Among Pt1–Pt3, Pt1 has the highest HOMO due to the presence of a strong electron-donating group (3-methylindole), and exhibits the narrowest bandgap; Pt2 has the lowest HOMO due to the lack of strong donor group within the structure, and shows the widest bandgap. Organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) based on these three complexes showed yellowish green to greenish yellow electroluminescence with high efficiency. Notably, the device based on Pt1 at the doping level of 10 wt% achieved a maximum efficiency of 53.0 cd A⁻¹, 35.9 lm W⁻¹ and 16.3% with CIE coordinates of (0.44, 0.53).     

Ultraefficient Non-Doped Deep Blue Fluorescent OLED: Achieving a High EQE of 10.17% at 1000 cd m−2 with CIEy<0.08

The pursuit for efficient deep blue material is an ever-increasing issue in organic optoelectronics field. It is a long-standing challenge to achieve high external quantum efficiency (EQE) exceed 10% at brightness of 1000 cd m⁻² with a Commission International de L'Eclairage (CIE_y) <0.08 in non-doped organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). Herein, this study reports a deep blue luminogen, PPITPh, by bonding phenanthro[9,10-d]imidazole moiety with m-terphenyl group via benzene bridge. The non-doped OLED based on PPITPh exhibits an exceptionally high EQE of 11.83% with a CIE coordinate of (0.15, 0.07). The EQE still maintains 10.17% at the brightness of 1000 cd m⁻², and even at a brightness as high as 10000 cd m⁻², an EQE of 7.5% is still remained, representing the record-high result among non-doped deep-blue OLEDs at 1000 cd m⁻². The unprecedented device performance is attributed to the reversed intersystem crossing process through hot exciton mechanism. Besides, the maximum EQE of orange phosphorescent OLED with PPITPh as host is 32.02%, and remains 31.17% at the brightness of 1000 cd m⁻². Such minimal efficiency roll-off demonstrates that PPITPh is also an excellent phosphorescent host material. The result offers a new design strategy for the enrichment of high-efficiency deep blue luminogen.     

Removing shortcomings of linear molecules to develop high efficiencies deep-blue organic electroluminescent materials

By using molecular twisting and bulky side group substitution, we successfully develop two deep-blue emitters, BiPI-1 and BiPI-2. These two twisted linear molecules retain the excellent photophysical and electrical properties of planar analogue and remarkably supress redshifts in solid state emission. Especially, BiPI-1 showed deep-blue emission in both solution and solid phase, and high carrier mobilities with μ_h > 10⁻³ cm² V⁻¹ s⁻¹ and μ_e > 10⁻⁵ cm² V⁻¹ s⁻¹. Standard blue electroluminescence (color purity: (0.15, 0.08)) and high device efficiency (CE: 4.62 cd A⁻¹, EQE: 6.18%) were observed in a non-doped OLED of BiPI-1.     

High efficiency blue PhOLEDs using spiro-annulated triphenylamine/fluorene hybrids as host materials with high triplet energy,high HOMO level and high Tg

Two spiro-annulated triphenylamine/fluorene oligomers, namely 4′-(9,9′-spirobifluoren-4-yl)-10-phenyl-10H-spiro[acridine-9,9′-fluorene] (NSF-SF), and 4,4′-di(spiro(triphenylamine-9,9′-fluorene)-2-yl)-spiro(triphenylamine-9,9′-fluorene) (NSF-NSF), are designed and synthesized. Their thermal, electrochemical and photophysical properties were investigated. The introduction of spiro-annulated triphenylamine moieties assurances the high HOMO energy levels of NSF-NSF and NSF-SF at −5.31 eV and −5.33 eV, respectively, which accordingly facilitates the hole injection from nearby hole-transporting layer. Meanwhile, the perpendicular arrangement of the spiro-conformation and the full ortho-linkage effectively prevents the extension of the π-conjugation and consequently guarantees their high triplet energies of 2.83 eV. Phosphorescent organic light-emitting devices (PhOLEDs) with the configurations of ITO/MoO₃/TAPC/EML/TmPyPB/LiF/Al were fabricated by using the two compounds as host materials and bis[2-(4′,6′-difluorophenyl)pyridinato-N,C^2′]iridium(III) picolate (FIrpic) as the dopant. The turn-on voltage of the device B based on NSF-NSF was 2.8 V. Simultaneously, the device exhibited excellent performance with the maximum current efficiency of 41 cd A⁻¹, the maximum power efficiency of 42 lm W⁻¹ and the maximum external quantum efficiency (EQE) of 19.1%. At a high brightness of 1000 cd m⁻², the device remained EQE of 16.2% and the roll-off value of external quantum efficiency is 15%.     

Two trans-1-(9-anthryl)-2-phenylethene derivatives as blue-green emitting materials for highly bright organic light-emitting diodes application

1-(9-Anthryl)-2-phenylethene (t-APE) is a blue-green material with high fluorescence quantum yield (Ф_f 0.44). However, it is easily crystallized. Herein, Two asymmetric blue-green emitting materials based on t-APE, (E)-9-(4-(2-(anthracen-9-yl)vinyl)phenyl)-10-(naphthalen-1-yl)anthracene (6) and (E)-9-(4-(2-(anthracen-9-yl)vinyl)phenyl)-10-(naphthalen-2-yl)anthracene (7) were firstly designed and synthesized. The two compounds possess high thermal stability, morphological durability, and bipolar characteristics. The non-doped blue-green organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) using 6 and 7 as emitting layers showed emission at 495 nm, full width at half maximum of 80 nm, maximum brightness of 13,814, 10,579 cd m⁻², maximum current efficiency of 3.62, 7.16 cd A⁻¹, and Commission Internationale de L'Eclairage (CIE) coordinate of (0.20, 0.43), respectively. Furthermore, when employing 6 and 7 as blue-green emitting layers and rubrene doped in tris-(8-hydroxyquinolinato)aluminum (Alq3) as the orange emitting layers to fabricate white OLEDs (WOLEDs), the WOLEDs exhibit a maximum brightness of 10,984, 14,652 cd m⁻², maximum current efficiency of 2.04, 2.70 cd A⁻¹, and CIE coordinate of (0.30, 0.40), (0.37, 0.47), Color Rendering Index (CRI) of 65, 60, stable EL spectra, respectively. This study demonstrates that the t-APE-type derivatives have the excellent properties for the emitting materials of OLEDs.