meta-Linked spirobifluorene/phosphine oxide hybrids as host materials for deep blue phosphorescent organic light-emitting diodes

This study investigated the use of a novel modification in molecular design to get two new electron-transport host materials, SF3PO and BSF3PO. By linking the phosphine oxide moieties at meta-position of spirobifluorene rings, higher triplet energies could be easily achieved for these two new materials. The steric spirobifluorene structures could guarantee their good thermal stabilities. According to these properties, their applications as host materials for deep blue phosphorescent organic light-emitting diodes (PHOLEDs) were explored. As expected, the deep blue emitting devices with Ir-complex FIr6 as phosphorescent dopants and SF3PO and BSF3PO as hosts had been fabricated and showed high efficiency of 28.5 and 22.0 cd/A, respectively, which were significantly higher than that of the para-linked analogue SPPO1.     

A new spiro[fluorene-9,9′-xanthene]-based host material possessing no conventional hole- and electron-transporting units for efficient and low voltage blue PHOLED via simple two-step synthesis

A new spiro[fluorene-9,9′-xanthene]-based host material SFX-PF without possessing conventional hole- and electron-transporting units has been developed, via very simple two-step synthesis, for efficient and low voltage blue phosphorescent organic light-emitting device (PHOLED). The blue device exhibited a low turn-on voltage of 2.8 V, and high maximum current efficiency, power efficiency, and external quantum efficiency up to 29.3 cd/A, 28.9 lm/W, and 14.7%, respectively. At the luminance level of 1000 cd/m², the driving voltages are still lower than 4.0 V with 12.9% roll-off of the external quantum efficiency. Based on our previous studies, these investigations provide the clues that SFX could be a new building block for designing blue phosphorescent host materials.     

Phenylimidazole-based homoleptic iridium(III) compounds for blue phosphorescent organic light-emitting diodes with high efficiency and long lifetime

In order to obtain triplet emitters with high stability and efficiency, three homoleptic iridium(III) compounds — specifically, Ir(tpim)₃ (1), Ir(mtpim)₃ (2), and Ir(itpim)₃ (3), where tpim = 1-([1,1′:3′,1″-terphenyl]-2′-yl)-2-(4-fluorophenyl)-1H-imidazole, mtpim = 2-(4-fluorophenyl)-1-(5′-methyl-[1,1′:3′,1″-terphenyl]-2′-yl)-1H-imidazole, and itpim = 2-(4-fluorophenyl)-1-(5′-isopropyl-[1,1′:3′,1″-terphenyl]-2′-yl)-1H-imidazole — were prepared by one-pot reaction of the corresponding phenylimidazole ligand with an Ir(I) complex as a starting material. Compounds 1–3 emit bright sky-blue phosphorescence with λ_max = 459–463 nm and phosphorescent quantum efficiencies of 0.38–0.50. Multi-layer phosphorescent organic light-emitting diodes using compounds 1–3 as the triplet emitters and mCBP (3,3-di(9H-carbazol-9-yl)biphenyl) as the host have been fabricated. Compound 3 doped in the emissive layer demonstrate external quantum efficiency as high as 20.1% at 1000 cd/m². In addition, the device based on compound 1 as an emitter shows a stable lifetime greater than 300 h at 1000 cd/m², which is one of the best results concerning the device lifetime.     

High quantum efficiency in blue phosphorescent organic light emitting diodes using ortho-substituted high triplet energy host materials

A high triplet energy material derived from carbazole and ortho terphenyl, 3,3′′-di(9H-carbazole-9-yl)-1,1′:2′,1′′-terphenyl (33DCTP), was synthesized as the host material for blue phosphorescent organic light-emitting diodes (PHOLEDs). The 33DCTP host showed high glass transition temperature of 110 °C, high triplet energy of 2.77 eV, the highest occupied molecular orbital of ?6.12 eV and the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital of ?2.52 eV. High efficiency blue PHOLEDs were developed using the 33DCTP host and bis((3,5-difluorophenyl)pyridine) iridium picolinate dopant material, and high quantum efficiency of 23.7% was achieved with a color coordinate of (0.14, 0.28).     

Optimizing the conjugation between N,N′-dicarbazolyl-3,5-benzene and triphenylphosphine oxide as bipolar hybrids for highly efficient blue and single emissive layer white phosphorescent OLEDs

Two bipolar host materials, mCPpPO and mCPmPO have been synthesized by Ni(II)/Zn-catalyzed cross-coupling of diphenylphosphine oxide and corresponding aryl bromide. The photophysical properties, HOMO/LUMO orbital distribution and triplet levels of these host materials are investigated and optimized by tuning the linking modes between electron acceptor triphenylphosphine oxide and electron donor N,N′-dicarbazolyl-3,5-benzene (mCP). When mCP is linked to the meta-position of benzene of triphenylphosphine oxide, the hybrid (mCPmPO) shows much higher steric hinderance than the para-position linked analogue (mCPpPO) so that it possesses a higher triplet energy. Equipped with the bipolar transport properties, mCPmPO-based blue PhOLED doped FIrpic shows a maximum current efficiency (η_c,max) of 40.0 cd/A, a maximum power efficiency (η_p,max) of 39.7 lm/W, corresponding the maximum external quantum efficiency (η_EQE,max) of 20.3%, and the current efficiency still maintain to 34.8 cd/A even at 1000 cd/m². Based on the optimized triplet energy level, the single emission layer white PhOLED hosted by mCPmPO shows η_c,max, η_p,max and η_EQE,max of 46.9 cd/A, 39.7 lm/W and 17.6%, respectively.