Recent progress in the development of polymers for white light-emitting polymer devices

Much effort has been devoted to the design and synthesis of polymers for use in flat panel display, solid state lighting, transistors, and photovoltaic devices. Especially, development of white light emitting polymeric materials has recently attracted much interest owing to their possible use in lighting application and backlights for flat panel displays. White emission has been obtained from polymeric molecules, small organic molecules, organometallic molecules, and phosphor-based or quantum dot-based inorganic molecules. Among materials used in white light emitting diodes, we summarize the white light emitting polymeric materials synthesized and published till December 2007.     

Bright White‐Light Emission from a Single Organic Compound in the Solid State

White‐light‐emitting materials and devices have attracted enormous interest because of their great potential for various lighting applications. We herein describe the light‐emitting properties of a series of new difunctional organic molecules of remarkably simple structure consisting of two terminal 4‐pyridone push–pull subunits separated by a polymethylene chain. They were found to emit almost “pure” white light as a single organic compound in the solid state, as well as when incorporated in a polymer film. To the best of our knowledge, they are the simplest white‐light‐emitting organic molecules reported to date.     

Chromophore‐labeled dendrimers for use in single‐layer light‐emitting diodes

Two novel chromophore‐labeled dendrimers are presented and their incorporation into two‐component, single layer organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) is described. The photoluminescence (PL) spectra, both in solution and in the solid state, demonstrate that Forster energy transfer from the donor chromophores on the dendrimers periphery to the acceptors located at the core is highly efficient, and affords emission exclusively from the core dyes, either coumarin 343 or a benzene‐capped pentathiophene. When these dendrimers are doped into single layer OLEDs, the electroluminescence (EL) is nearly identical to the photoluminescence described above, indicating once again exclusive emission from the core chromophores.     

Recent progress in the development of polymers for white light-emitting polymer devices

Much effort has been devoted to the design and synthesis of polymers for use in flat panel display, solid state lighting, transistors, and photovoltaic devices. Especially, development of white light emitting polymeric materials has recently attracted much interest owing to their possible use in lighting application and backlights for flat panel displays. White emission has been obtained from polymeric molecules, small organic molecules, organometallic molecules, and phosphor-based or quantum dot-based inorganic molecules. Among materials used in white light emitting diodes, we summarize the white light emitting polymeric materials synthesized and published till December 2007. Correspondence: In Tae Kim, Department of Chemistry, Kwangwoon University, 447-1 Wolgye-Dong, Nowon-Ku, Seoul 139-701, Korea, So Ha Lee, Life Sciences Research Division, Korea Institute of Science and Technology, P.O. Box 131, Cheongryang, Seoul 130-650, Korea.     

Star-shaped Organic Molecules That Comprise a 1,3,5-Trisubs-tituted Benzene Core and Three Oligoaryleneethynylene Arms as Light-emitting Materials

Star‐shaped rigid molecules that comprise a 1,3,5‐trisubstitued benzene core and three oligoaryleneethynylene arms have great potential application in organic light‐emitting devices (OLEDs). Their optical and electronic properties are tuned by the star‐shaped molecular size. To reveal the relationship between the properties and structures, we perform a systemic investigation for these organic molecules. The ground and excited state molecules are studied using density functional theory (DFT), the ab initio HF, and the single excitation configuration interaction (CIS), respectively. And the electronic absorption and emission spectra are investigated with time‐dependent density functional theory (TDDFT) and Zerner's intermediate neglect of differential overlap (ZINDO) methods. The results show that the HOMOs, LUMOs, energy gaps, ionization potentials (IP), electron affinities (EA), absorption and emission spectra are controlled by the star‐shaped molecular size, which favor the hole and electron injection into OLEDs. With increasing the molecular conjugated length, the absorption and emission spectra exhibit red shifts to some extent and are in good agreement with the experimental ones. Also, the calculated emission spectra range from 330 to 440 nm. All the calculated show that the star‐shaped molecules are promising as blue light emitting materials     

Efficient Non‐doped Blue Fluorescent Organic Light‐Emitting Diodes Based on Anthracene–Triphenylethylene Derivatives

The development of efficient blue materials has been a continuous research topic in the field of organic light‐emitting diodes (OLEDs). In this paper, three aggregation‐induced emission enhancement active blue emitters, PIAnTPE, TPAAnTPE and CzAnTPE, are successfully synthesized by attaching a triphenylethylene unit and phenanthroimidazole/triphenylamine/carbazole moieties to the 9,10‐positions of anthracene, respectively. The three compounds exhibit good thermal stabilities, appropriate for the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) and the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) energy levels and display high photoluminescence quantum yields (PLQYs) of 65, 70 and 46 % in the solid state. Non‐doped blue devices using PIAnTPE, TPAAnTPE and CzAnTPE as the emitting layers show good electroluminescent performances, with the maximum external quantum efficiencies (EQEs) of 4.46, 4.13 and 4.04 %, respectively. More importantly, EQEs of all the three devices can be still retained when the luminescence reaches 1000 cd m^?2, exhibiting quite small efficiency roll‐offs in the non‐doped OLEDs.     

Deep‐Red to Near‐Infrared Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescence in Organic Solid Films and Electroluminescent Devices

The design and synthesis of highly efficient deep red (DR) and near‐infrared (NIR) organic emitting materials with characteristic of thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) still remains a great challenge. A strategy was developed to construct TADF organic solid films with strong DR or NIR emission feature. The triphenylamine (TPA) and quinoxaline‐6,7‐dicarbonitrile (QCN) were employed as electron donor (D) and acceptor (A), respectively, to synthesize a TADF compound, TPA‐QCN. The TPA‐QCN molecule with orange‐red emission in solution was employed as a dopant to prepare DR and NIR luminescent solid thin films. The high doped concentration and neat films exhibited efficient DR and NIR emissions, respectively. The highly efficient DR and NIR organic light‐emitting devices (OLEDs) were fabricated by regulating TPA‐QCN dopant concentration in the emitting layers.     

A Unique Blend of 2‐Fluorenyl‐2‐anthracene and 2‐Anthryl‐2‐anthracence Showing White Emission and High Charge Mobility

White‐light‐emitting materials with high mobility are necessary for organic white‐light‐emitting transistors, which can be used for self‐driven OLED displays or OLED lighting. In this study, we combined two materials with similar structures—2‐fluorenyl‐2‐anthracene (FlAnt) with blue emission and 2‐anthryl‐2‐anthracence (2A) with greenish‐yellow emission—to fabricate OLED devices, which showed unusual solid‐state white‐light emission with the CIE coordinates (0.33, 0.34) at 10 V. The similar crystal structures ensured that the OTFTs based on mixed FlAnt and 2A showed high mobility of 1.56 cm² V⁻¹ s⁻¹. This simple method provides new insight into the design of high‐performance white‐emitting transistor materials and structures.     

Rhodium(III)‐Catalyzed ortho‐Heteroarylation of Phenols through Internal Oxidative C?H Activation: Rapid Screening of Single‐Molecular White‐Light‐Emitting Materials

Reported herein is the first example of a transition‐metal‐catalyzed internal oxidative C H/C H cross‐coupling between two (hetero)arenes through a traceless oxidation directing strategy. Without the requirement of an external metal oxidant, a wide range of phenols, including phenol‐containing natural products, can undergo the coupling with azoles to assemble a large library of highly functionalized 2‐(2‐hydroxyphenyl)azoles. The route provides an opportunity to rapidly screen white‐light‐emitting materials. As illustrative examples, two bis(triphenylamine)‐bearing 2‐(2‐hydroxyphenyl)oxazoles, which are difficult to access otherwise, exhibit bright white‐light emission, high quantum yield, and thermal stability. Also presented is the first example of the white‐light emission, in a single excited‐state intramolecular proton transfer system, of 2‐(2‐hydroxyphenyl)azoles, thus highlighting the charm of C H activation in the discovery of new organic optoelectronic materials.     

Rhodium(III)‐Catalyzed ortho‐Heteroarylation of Phenols through Internal Oxidative CH Activation: Rapid Screening of Single‐Molecular White‐Light‐Emitting Materials

Reported herein is the first example of a transition‐metal‐catalyzed internal oxidative C? H/C? H cross‐coupling between two (hetero)arenes through a traceless oxidation directing strategy. Without the requirement of an external metal oxidant, a wide range of phenols, including phenol‐containing natural products, can undergo the coupling with azoles to assemble a large library of highly functionalized 2‐(2‐hydroxyphenyl)azoles. The route provides an opportunity to rapidly screen white‐light‐emitting materials. As illustrative examples, two bis(triphenylamine)‐bearing 2‐(2‐hydroxyphenyl)oxazoles, which are difficult to access otherwise, exhibit bright white‐light emission, high quantum yield, and thermal stability. Also presented is the first example of the white‐light emission, in a single excited‐state intramolecular proton transfer system, of 2‐(2‐hydroxyphenyl)azoles, thus highlighting the charm of C? H activation in the discovery of new organic optoelectronic materials.     

Synthesis and characterization of new blue‐greenish electroluminescent materials based on 1,3,4‐oxadiazole‐triazolopyridinone hybrids

New functionalized oxadiazole‐triazolopyridinone derivatives were synthesized via arcycloaddition. With the chromophores of triazolopyridinone, the photoluminescence spectra of these compounds in dichloromethane solution showed emission peaks between 430 and 520 nm. Following the spectroscopic studies, and the measurements of cyclic voltammogram, 1,3,4‐oxadiazole‐triazolopyridinone hybrids possess a great potential as highly efficient, blue‐greenish, organic light‐emitting devices materials. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Heteroatom Chem 18:212–219, 2007; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/hc.20285     

Achieving Solution-Processed Non-Doped Single-Emitting-Layer White Organic Light-Emitting Diodes through Adjusting Pyrene-Based Polyaromatic Hydrocarbon

Single-emitting-layer white organic light-emitting diodes (SEL-WOLEDs) have developed rapidly in recent years due to the outstanding advantages of high efficiency, simple device structure, low cost, less phase separation, and stable emission color. Nevertheless, the relatively complicated host-dopant system is usually essential for most previous SEL-WOLEDs and the development of simple non-doped SEL-WOLEDs lags behind. Hence the straightforward synthesis of single-white-emitting molecules for non-doped SEL-WOLEDs still remains a great challengeable task. In this article, we designed and synthesized two new pyrene-based polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and used them as emitting layer materials in the OLED devices. When the molecules change from the mono-fused one to bis-fused one, the emitting light changes from greenish to white color. Further study indicated that the bis-fused molecule PyD with more twisted and extended backbone packed in neat Cmca space group in single-crystal system compared with P2₁/n for PyS, which may be favorable to form excimers in the solid state and broaden the emission spectrum in the OLEDs. As a result, a solution-processed non-doped single-white-emitting-molecule SEL-WOLED with high performance (e. g., a high color rendering index of 66) is reported. The findings will be beneficial not only to further development of simple WOLEDs, but also to other related organic optoelectronic technology.     

Recent Progress in Sublimable Cationic Iridium(III) Complexes for Organic Light‐Emitting Diodes

Sublimable cationic iridium(III) complexes consisting of light‐emitting coordinated iridium(III) cations and nonluminous negative counter‐ions, show excellent photophysical properties, superior electrochemical behaviors and high thermal stabilities, therefore have emerged as a new library of phosphorescent materials for various organic optoelectronic devices. Here we summarize and highlight the recent progress in sublimable cationic iridium(III) complexes, regarding the material design strategies, synthetic routes, photoluminescent characteristics in both solutions and neat films, together with the current utilization in organic light‐emitting diodes based on the emissive material layers fabricated by vacuum evaporation deposition. Finally, we present a brief outlook thereon, indicating the great promise and brilliant application prospect of sublimable cationic iridium(III) complexes in future flat‐panel display and solid‐state lighting technology.     

Unique Solid‐State Emission Behavior of Aromatic Difluoroboronated β‐Diketones as an Emitter in Organic Light‐Emitting Devices

Aromatic difluoroboronated β‐diketone ( BF₂DK ) derivatives are a widely known class of luminescent organic materials that exhibit high photoluminescent quantum efficiency and unique aggregation‐dependent fluorescence behavior. However, there have been only a few reports on their use in solid‐state electronic devices, such as organic light‐emitting devices (OLEDs). Herein, we investigated the solid‐state properties and OLED performance of a series of π‐extended BF₂DK derivatives that have previously been shown to exhibit intense fluorescence in the solution state. The BF₂DK derivatives formed exciplexes with a carbazole derivative and exhibited thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) behavior to give orange electroluminescence with a peak external quantum efficiency of 10 % that apparently exceeds the theoretical efficiency limit of conventional fluorescent OLEDs (7.5 %), assuming a light out‐coupling factor of 30 %.     

Functionalization of Pyrene To Prepare Luminescent Materials—Typical Examples of Synthetic Methodology

Pyrene‐based π‐conjugated materials are considered to be an ideal organic electro‐luminescence material for application in semiconductor devices, such as organic light‐emitting diodes (OLEDs), organic field‐effect transistors (OFETs) and organic photovoltaics (OPVs), and so forth. However, the great drawback of employing pyrene as an organic luminescence material is the formation of excimer emission, which quenches the efficiency at high concentration or in the solid‐state. Thus, in order to obtain highly efficient optical devices, scientists have devoted much effort to tuning the structure of pyrene derivatives in order to realize exploitable properties by employing two strategies, 1) introducing a variety of moieties at the pyrene core, and 2) exploring effective and convenient synthetic strategies to functionalize the pyrene core. Over the past decades, our group has mainly focused on synthetic methodologies for functionalization of the pyrene core; we have found that formylation/acetylation or bromination of pyrene can selectly lead to functionalization at K‐region by Lewis acid catalysis. Herein, this Minireview highlights the direct synthetic approaches (such as formylation, bromination, oxidation, and de‐tert‐butylation reactions, etc.) to functionalize the pyrene in order to advance research on luminescent materials for organic electronic applications. Further, this article demonstrates that the future direction of pyrene chemistry is asymmetric functionalization of pyrene for organic semiconductor applications and highlights some of the classical asymmetric pyrenes, as well as the latest breakthroughs. In addition, the photophysical properties of pyrene‐based molecules are briefly reviewed. To give a current overview of the development of pyrene chemistry, the review selectively covers some of the latest reports and concepts from the period covering late 2011 to the present day.     

Stack the Bowls: Tailoring the Electronic Structure of Corannulene‐Integrated Crystalline Materials

We report the first examples of purely organic donor–acceptor materials with integrated π‐bowls (πBs) that combine not only crystallinity and high surface areas but also exhibit tunable electronic properties, resulting in a four‐orders‐of‐magnitude conductivity enhancement in comparison with the parent framework. In addition to the first report of alkyne–azide cycloaddition utilized for corannulene immobilization in the solid state, we also probed the charge transfer rate within the Marcus theory as a function of mutual πB orientation for the first time, as well as shed light on the density of states near the Fermi edge. These studies could foreshadow new avenues for πB utilization for the development of optoelectronic devices or a route for highly efficient porous electrodes.     

Recent Advancements in and the Future of Organic Emitters: TADF‐ and RTP‐Active Multifunctional Organic Materials

Organic emitting compounds that are based on π‐conjugated skeletons have emerged as promising next‐generation materials for application in optoelectronic devices. In this Minireview, recent advances in the development of organic emitters that irradiate room‐temperature phosphorescence and/or thermally activated delayed fluorescence with extraordinary luminescence properties, such as aggregation‐induced emission, mechanochromic luminescence, and circularly polarized luminescence, are discussed.     

Novel chiral conjugated macromolecules for potential electrical and optical applications

Optically active 1,1′‐binaphthyl molecules have been used to construct novel chiral dendrimers and linear polymers. Efficient light harvesting effects of the dendrimers have been observed. They have shown enantioselective fluorescence responses in the presence of chiral amino alcohol quenchers. They are potentially useful as fluorescent sensors for the recognition of chiral organic compounds. Linear binaphthyl polymers have shown strong light emitting properties. Their colors of emission can be systematically tuned by incorporating linkers of various conjugation length. A very efficient light emitting diode has been prepared from the binaphthyl‐based conjugated polymers. Nonlinear optical chromophores have been organized in the chiral binaphthyl polymer chains to construct noncentrosymmetric and multipolar materials. These novel propeller‐like polymers have shown significant second‐order nonlinear optical effects.     

Polymorphism,Fluorescence, and Optoelectronic Properties of a Borazine Derivative

We have prepared a new borazine derivative that bears mesityl substituents at the boron centers and displays exceptional chemical stability. Detailed crystallographic and solid‐state fluorescence characterizations revealed the existence of several polymorphs, each of which showed different emission profiles. In particular, a bathochromic shift is observed when going from the lower‐ to the higher‐density crystal. Computational investigations of the conformational dynamics of borazine 1 in both the gas phase and in the solid state using molecular dynamics (MD) simulations showed that the conformation of the peripheral aryl groups significantly varies when going from an isolated molecule (in which the rings are able to flip over the 90° barrier at RT) to the crystals (in which the rotation is locked by packing effects), thus generating specific nonsymmetric intermolecular interactions in the different polymorphs. To investigate the optoelectronic properties of these materials by fabrication and characterization of light‐emitting diodes (LEDs) and light‐emitting electrochemical cells (LECs), borazine 1 was incorporated as the active material in the emissive layer. The current and radiance versus voltage characteristics, as well as the electroluminescence spectra reported here for the first time are encouraging prospects for the engineering of future borazine‐based devices.     

Highly Efficient Organic Blue Electroluminescent Materials and Devices with Mesoscopic Structures

Due to the difficulty in achieving high efficiency and high color purity simultaneously, blue emission is the limiting factor for the performance and stability of OLEDs. Since 2003, we have been working on organic light‐emitting diodes (OLEDs), especially on blue light. After a series of molecular designs, novel strategies have been proposed from different aspects. At first, highly efficient deep blue emission could be achieved through molecular design with highly twisted structure to suppress fluorescence quenching and redshift. Deep blue emitters with high efficiency in solid state, a twisted structure with aggregation induced emission (AIE) characteristics was incorporated to inhibit molecular aggregation, and triplet‐triplet fusion (TTF) and hybridized localized charge transfer (HLCT) were adopted to increase the ratio of triplet exciton used. Secondly, a highly efficient blue OLED could be achieved through improving charge transport. New electron transport materials (ETMs) with wide band gap were developed to control charge transport balance in devices. Thirdly, a highly efficient deep blue emission could be achieved through a mesoscopic structure of out‐coupling layer. A mesoscopic photonic structured organic thin film was fabricated on the top of metal electrode by self‐aggregation in order to improve the light out‐coupling efficiency.