Decoration of Dibenzofuran Using Cyanocarbazole via 6‐Position as a Molecular Design Approach for High‐Triplet‐Energy Bipolar Host Materials

In this study, two new dibenzofuran derivatives featuring one or two cyanocarbazole units, 6‐(dibenzo[b,d]furan‐4‐yl)‐9‐phenyl‐9H‐carbazole‐3‐carbonitrile ( mBFCzCN) and 6,6′‐(dibenzo[b,d]furan‐4,6‐diyl)bis(9‐phenyl‐9H‐carbazole‐3‐carbonitrile) ( dBFCzCN ), were developed as host materials for phosphorescent organic light emitting diodes (PhOLEDs). A new molecular design connecting the cyanocarbazole to the dibenzofuran using the cyanocarbazole 6‐position instead of its 9‐position was created, and the effects of number of cyanocarbazole units in the dibenzofuran building block on the photophysical and electroluminescence properties were investigated in detail. The mBFCzCN compound revealed high triplet energy (2.78 eV) than that of dBFCzCN (2.68 eV) and good bipolar charge transporting properties. The potential of these materials as hosts for blue and green PhOLEDs was investigated using bis(4,6‐(difluorophenyl)pyridinato‐N,C^2′)picolinate iridium(III) (FIrpic) and tris(2‐phenylpyridinato)iridium(III) (Ir(ppy)₃) dopants, respectively. The results indicated that the mBFCzCN with one cyanocarbazole unit showed better device performance than the dBFCzCN with two cyanocarbazole units in the blue and green devices. High external quantum efficiencies of 19.0 and 21.2 % were demonstrated in the blue and green PhOLEDs with the mBFCzCN host due to its high triplet energy and good bipolar charge transporting characteristics.     

Synthesis of carbazole-based dendrimer: host material for highly efficient solution-processed blue organic electrophosphorescent diodes

This paper reports the synthesis and physical properties of two novel carbazole-based dendritic host materials Cz-CCP and Cz-mCP for solution-processed blue phosphorescent organic light-emitting devices (PhOLEDs). These dendritic hosts exhibit high triplet energy (≥2.85 eV), excellent film-forming ability (with low root-mean-square (rms) values less than 0.2 nm), high glass-transition temperatures in the range of 242–248 °C, and the appropriate HOMO energy levels (?5.33–?5.35 eV) facilitating the transfer of holes from Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):Poly(styrene-4-sulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) to the emitting layer. The single-layer device using Cz-CCP and Cz-mCP as the host for the phosphorescence emitter iridium(III) bis(4,6-difluorophenylpyridinato)-picolinate (FIrpic) showed the maximum luminance efficiencies of 9.6 and 10.8 cd A^?1, respectively. By introducing a thin 1,3,5-tris(1-phenyl-1H-benzo[d]imidazol-2-yl)benzene (TPBI) electron-transporting and exciton-confining layer, the maximum efficiency of the solution-processed double-layer device based on Cz-CCP and Cz-mCP can be further improved to 20.5 and 22.7 cd A^?1, and maximum external quantum efficiencies as high as 10.2% and 11.5%, respectively. These results demonstrated that the newly synthesized, carbazole-based dendritic host materials are advantageous for fabrication of highly efficient blue PhOLEDs.     

Novel bipolar host for highly efficient green,yellow, orange,red and deep-red phosphorescent organic light-emitting devices

A novel bipolar host tris(4-(pyrimidin-5-yl)phenyl)amine (TPMTPA) constructed by incorporating triphenylamine as the electron-donating core and pyrimidine as the electron-accepting peripheries was designed and synthesized. TPMTPA achieves excellent bipolar charge transport properties and has high enough triplet energy level to sensitize green, yellow, orange, red and deep-red phosphors. By using TPMTPA as a host, high performance green, yellow, orange, red and deep-red phosphorescent organic light-emitting devices (PhOLEDs) were demonstrated with maximum external quantum efficiencies of 20.4%, 17.6%, 15.1%, 15.3% and 15.7% respectively. These results suggested that TPMTPA is a versatile high performance host for PhOLEDs of different emission colors.     

Synthesis and device properties of carbazole/benzimidazole-based host materials

We report two bipolar host materials bearing hole-transport benzofurocarbazole/indenocarbazole cores and an electron-transport benzimidazole moiety for red phosphorescence organic light emitting devices (PhOLEDs). The two novel host materials exhibited excellent physical properties with high thermal stabilities, appropriate HOMO-LUMO energy levels and balanced charge transport. Both of them were applied to fabricate red PhOLEDs as promising host materials, and 7,7-dimethyl-5-(4′-(1-phenyl-1H-benzo[d]imidazol-2-yl)-[1,1′-biphenyl]-4-yl)-5,7-dihydroindeno[2,1-b]carbazole (ICBI) based device demonstrated outstanding electroluminescence performance with the maximum current efficiency, power efficiency and external quantum efficiency of 33.0 cd/A, 13.9 lm/W and 18.9%, respectively.     

Productive harvesting of triplet excitons in anthracene-based emitters toward high-performance deep-blue nondoped organic light-emitting diodes

Developing efficient deep-blue non-doped organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) is of great significance in practical applications. Here, two highly efficient asymmetric anthracene-based fluorescent emitters, 1-phenyl-2-(4-(10-(4-(2-phenyl-1H-phenanthro[9,10-d]imidazole-1-yl)phenyl)anthracen-9-yl)phenyl)-1H-phenanthro [9,10-d]imidazole (PPI-An-NPPI) and 1-phenyl-2-(4-(10-(4-(2,4,5-triphenyl-1H-imidazole-1-yl)phenyl) anthracen-9-yl)phenyl)-1H-phenanthro[9,10-d]imidazole (PPI-An-NPIM), have been designed and synthesized by introducing large steric hindrance imidazole moieties to regulate molecular excited states and photophysical properties. Experimental data show that they have high photoluminescence efficiencies, good thermal stabilities, and suitable energy levels for carrier injection. Theoretical calculations present that their high-lying excited states exhibit dominant locally excited-state characteristics with enhancing oscillator strength compared with anthracene core. The calculated transition dipole moments data show that two molecules are preferentially oriented along the horizontal direction. In addition, some hot exciton mechanism-like channels are also observed and confirmed, which are beneficial for the productive triplet-singlet exciton conversion. The non-doped OLED using PPI-An-NPPI as the emitting layer achieves a maximum external quantum efficiency (EQE_max) of 7.75% and Commission Internationale de L’Eclairage (CIE) coordinates of (0.15, 0.11), whereas PPI-An-NPIM gives a better color purity of CIE (0.14, 10) with an EQE_max of 7.48%. Moreover, all devices exhibit an insignificant efficiency roll-off at high luminescence and still yield an EQE of 7.61% and 7.14% at 1,000 cd/m². This work provides an interesting insight into developing efficient deep-blue fluorescent emitters for high-performance non-doped OLEDs.     

Pyridinyl-Carbazole Fragments Containing Host Materials for Efficient Green and Blue Phosphorescent OLEDs

Pyridinyl-carbazole fragments containing low molar mass compounds as host derivatives H1 and H2 were synthesized, investigated, and used for the preparation of electro-phosphorescent organic light-emitting devices (PhOLEDs). The materials demonstrated high stability against thermal decomposition with the decomposition temperatures of 361–386 °C and were suitable for the preparation of thin amorphous and homogeneous layers with very high values of glass transition temperatures of 127–139 °C. It was determined that triplet energy values of the derivatives are, correspondingly, 2.82 eV for the derivative H1 and 2.81 eV for the host H2. The new derivatives were tested as hosts of emitting layers in blue, as well as in green phosphorescent OLEDs. The blue device with 15 wt.% of the iridium(III)[bis(4,6-difluorophenyl)-pyridinato-N,C2′]picolinate (FIrpic) emitter doping ratio in host material H2 exhibited the best overall characteristics with a power efficiency of 24.9 lm/W, a current efficiency of 23.9 cd/A, and high value of 10.3% of external quantum efficiency at 100 cd/m². The most efficient green PhOLED with 10 wt% of Ir(ppy)₃ {tris(2-phenylpyridine)iridium(III)} in the H2 host showed a power efficiency of 34.1 lm/W, current efficiency of 33.9 cd/A, and a high value of 9.4% for external quantum efficiency at a high brightness of 1000 cd/m², which is required for lighting applications. These characteristics were obtained in non-optimized PhOLEDs under an ordinary laboratory atmosphere and could be improved in the optimization process. The results demonstrate that some of the new host materials are very promising components for the development of efficient phosphorescent devices.     

Synthesis, characterization and luminescence study of dimethyl(β-ketoiminato)gallium (-indium) complexes: crystal structure of dimethyl[1-phenyl-3-N-(4-methoxyphenylimino)-1-butanonato]gallium

Six dimethylgallium (indium) complexes of type Me₂ML [M = Ga, L = 1-phenyl-3-N-(phenylimino)-1-butanonato (1), 1-phenyl-3-N-(p-methoxyphenylimino)-1-butanonato (2), 1-phenyl-3-N-(o-chloro phenylimino)-1-butanonato (3); M = In, L = 1-phenyl-3-N-(phenyl imino)-1-butanonato (4), 1-phenyl-3-N-(p-methoxyphenylimino)-1-butanonato (5), 1-phenyl-3-N-(o-chlorophenylimino)-1-butanonato (6)] have been synthesized by reaction of trimethylgallium (indium) with appropriate 1-phenyl-3-N-(arylimino)-1-butanones. The complexes obtained have been characterized by elemental analysis, ¹H NMR, IR and mass spectroscopy. Structure of 2 has been determined by X-ray single-crystal analysis, in which Ga atom is four coordinated. Complexes 1-6 emit colors from blue to green (463-491 nm) when irradiated by UV light. The electroluminescent (EL) properties of 1-6 were examined by fabricating EL devices using 1-6 as emitter, respectively. The EL bands are located in the green region (509-522 nm).     

Synthesis of efficient blue and red light emitting phenanthroline derivatives containing both hole and electron transporting properties

Two phenanthroline derivatives containing a hole transporting triphenylamine and an electron transporting 1,3,4-oxadiazole unit have been prepared with high yield. UV-vis absorption and fluorescence measurement indicated they are high efficient light-emitting materials. The compounds are 6-(5-(4-N,N′-diphenylaminophenyl)-1,3,4-oxadiazol-2-yl) quinoxalino[2,3-f] phenanthroline (9, λ_max = 635 nm, 40% quantum yield), and 1-ethyl-2-(4-(5-(4-N,N′-diphenylaminophenyl)-1,3,4-oxadiazol-2-yl)phenyl)imidazo[4,5-f]phenanthroline (14, λ_max = 461 nm, 78% quantum yield). Preliminary study on electroluminescence for the two fluorescent dyes prepared from vacuum evaporation resulted in blue and red light emitting organic light emitting diodes (OLED).     

Solution-processed red iridium complexes based on carbazole-phenylquinoline main ligand: Synthesis, properties and their applications in phosphorescent organic light-emitting diodes

New carbazole-phenylquinoline (CVz-PhQ) based iridium complexes were designed and synthesized for their application in red phosphorescence organic light-emitting diodes (PhOLEDs) and their photophysical, electrochemical and electroluminescence (EL) properties were investigated. The PhOLEDs were fabricated using bis[9-(2-(2-methoxyethoxy)ethyl)-3-(4-phenylquinolin-2-yl)-9H-carbazolato-N,C2′]iridium 2-pyrazinecarboxylic acid (EO-CVz-PhQ)₂Ir(prz) and bis[9-(2-(2-methoxyethoxy)ethyl)-3-(4-phenylquinolin-2-yl)-9H-carbazolato-N,C2′]iridium 5-methyl-2-pyrazinecarboxylic acid (EO-CVz-PhQ)₂Ir(mprz) as the emitter and PVK, co-doped with OXD-7 as the electron transport material and TPD as the hole transport material, as the polymer host. The red emissive PhOLEDs, based on the ITO/poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene): poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS)/4,4′,4″-tris(carbazole-9-yl)triphenylamine (TCTA)/poly(N-vinylcarbazole) (PVK):N,N′-diphenyl-N,N′-(bis(3-methylphenyl)-[1,1-biphenyl]-4,4′-diamine (TPD):1,3-bis[5-(4-tert-butylphenyl)-1,3,4-oxadiazole-2-yl]benzene (OXD-7):Ir complex/cathode configuration, exhibited a maximum external quantum efficiency of 3.68% and a maximum luminance efficiency of 6.69 cd/A. Furthermore, by introducing a TCTA interlayer, the PhOLEDs showed only a slight efficiency roll off of 5.4% from a low current density (1.81 mA/cm²) to a high current density (44.59 mA/cm²).     

A Bipolar and Small Singlet‐Triplet Splitting Energy Host with Triplet Energy Lower Than a Blue Phosphor for Phosphorescent OLEDs in Panchromatic Range

A bipolar host material, 2,4,6‐tris(3‐(carbazol‐9‐yl)phenyl)‐triazine (TCPZ), was synthesized according to reported method. Due to the higher triplet energy compared to green and red phosphors, TCPZ is suitable to host them in phosphorescent organic light‐emitting diodes (PhOLEDs). Although the triplet of TCPZ is slightly lower than a common blue phosphor, good blue PhOLEDs using TCPZ as the host were successfully demonstrated in this work. By low temperature emission measurement, it was found that the energy splitting between the singlet and triplet of TCPZ is as small as 0.24 eV. Therefore, thermal activated energy transfer from triplet to singlet in the host TCPZ is expected to occur, which can be afterwards efficiently transferred to the blue phosphor, hence enabling it to host blue phosphor. As a result, TCPZ can be used as host for phosphors in panchromatic range. Additionally, single‐carrier devices clearly prove its good bipolar transport feature, beneficial to device performance. By using TCPZ as a host, high performance deep‐red, green and blue PhOLEDs have been achieved, with maximum efficiencies of 9.3 cd·A^?1 (13.2%), 81.3 cd·A^?1 (23.1%) and 17.03 cd·A^?1 (10.4%), respectively.