Novel Hyperbranched Phthalocyanine as a Hole Injection Nanolayer in Organic Light‐Emitting Diodes

A novel organic hyperbranched copper phthalocyanine was synthesized for use as a hole injection nanolayer on ITO in organic light‐emitting diodes (OLEDs). This material is soluble in organic solvents which allows for processing under anhydrous conditions, unlike water based conventional polymer hole injection layer materials such as poly(3,4‐ethylenedioxythiophene)(PEDOT)/polystyrene sulfonate (PSS). The hyperbranched layer increased the luminous efficiency and brightness of single layer OLED devices, in addition to reducing current leakage which causes crosstalk in panel devices, compared to devices prepared from PEDOT/PSS. Therefore, this material is more suitable for OLED applications due to its processing and performance advantages over conventional commercial conducting polymer compositions.

     

Photolithographic patterning of highly conductive PEDOT:PSS and its application in organic light‐emitting diodes

Photolithographically patterned highly conductive (～1400 S/cm) poly(3,4‐ethylenedioxythio‐phene):poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) films are demonstrated as electrodes for organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs). With the assistance of hydrofluoroether (HFE) solvents and fluorinated photoresists, high‐resolution passive‐matrix OLEDs with PEDOT:PSS electrodes are fabricated, in which the OLEDs show comparable performance to those devices prepared on the indium tin oxide (ITO) electrodes. This photolithographic patterning process for PEDTO:PSS has great potential for applications which require flexible electrodes. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part B: Polym. Phys. 2014 , 52, 1221–1226     

Photoprogrammable Organic Light‐Emitting Diodes

Enlightening the memory : The integration of a crosslinkable photochromic dithienylperfluorocyclopentene (DTE) into organic light‐emitting diodes (OLED) allows for the individualization of the emissive area of the OLED device, for example, for signage applications. The operation principle is based on switching the injection barrier for holes (positive charge carriers). Very large ON/OFF ratios of up to 3000 for current as well as electroluminescence have been achieved.

     

Thermally Cross‐Linkable Hole Transport Polymers for Solution‐Based Organic Light‐Emitting Diodes

Two thermally cross‐linkable hole transport polymers that contain phenoxazine and triphenylamine moieties, X‐P1 and X‐P2, are developed for use in solution‐processed multi‐stack organic light‐emitting diodes (OLEDs). Both X‐P1 and X‐P2 exhibit satisfactory cross‐linking and optoelectronic properties. The highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) levels of X‐P1 and X‐P2 are −5.24 and −5.16 eV, respectively. Solution‐processed super yellow polymer devices (ITO/X‐P1 or X‐P2/PDY‐132/LiF/Al) with X‐P1 or X‐P2 hole transport layers of various thicknesses are fabricated with the aim of optimizing the device characteristics. The fabricated multi‐stack yellow devices containing the newly synthesized hole transport polymers exhibit satisfactory currents and power efficiencies. The optimized X‐P2 device exhibits a device efficiency that is dramatically improved by more than 66% over that of a reference device without an HTL.

     

Bipolar Host Materials for Organic Light‐Emitting Diodes

It is important to balance holes and electrons in the emitting layer of organic light‐emitting diodes to maximize recombination efficiency and the accompanying external quantum efficiency. Therefore, the host materials of the emitting layer should transport both holes and electrons for the charge balance. From this perspective, bipolar hosts have been popular as the host materials of thermally activated delayed fluorescent devices and phosphorescent organic light‐emitting diodes. In this review, we have summarized recent developments of bipolar hosts and suggested perspectives of host materials for organic light‐emitting diodes.     

Novel Red Phosphorescent Polymers Bearing Both Ambipolar and Functionalized IrIII Phosphorescent Moieties for Highly Efficient Organic Light‐Emitting Diodes

A series of novel red phosphorescent polymers is successfully developed through Suzuki cross‐coupling among ambipolar units, functionalized Ir^III phosphorescent blocks, and fluorene‐based silane moieties. The photophysical and electrochemical investigations indicate not only highly efficient energy‐transfer from the organic segments to the phosphorescent units in the polymer backbone but also the ambipolar character of the copolymers. Benefiting from all these merits, the phosphorescent polymers can furnish organic light‐emitting diodes (OLEDs) with exceptional high electroluminescent (EL) efficiencies with a current efficiency (η _L) of 8.31 cd A⁻¹, external quantum efficiency (η _ext) of 16.07%, and power efficiency (η _P) of 2.95 lm W⁻¹, representing the state‐of‐the‐art electroluminescent performances ever achieved by red phosphorescent polymers. This work here might represent a new pathway to design and synthesize highly efficient phosphorescent polymers.

     

Triarylboron‐Based Fluorescent Organic Light‐Emitting Diodes with External Quantum Efficiencies Exceeding 20 %

Triarylboron compounds have attracted much attention, and found wide use as functional materials because of their electron‐accepting properties arising from the vacant p orbitals on the boron atoms. In this study, we design and synthesize new donor–acceptor triarylboron emitters that show thermally activated delayed fluorescence. These emitters display sky‐blue to green emission and high photoluminescence quantum yields of 87–100 % in host matrices. Organic light‐emitting diodes using these emitting molecules as dopants exhibit high external quantum efficiencies of 14.0–22.8 %, which originate from efficient up‐conversion from triplet to singlet states and subsequent efficient radiative decay from singlet to ground states.     

2,5‐Difluorenyl‐Substituted Siloles for the Fabrication of High‐Performance Yellow Organic Light‐Emitting Diodes

2,3,4,5‐Tetraarylsiloles are a class of important luminogenic materials with efficient solid‐state emission and excellent electron‐transport capacity. However, those exhibiting outstanding electroluminescence properties are still rare. In this work, bulky 9,9‐dimethylfluorenyl, 9,9‐diphenylfluorenyl, and 9,9′‐spirobifluorenyl substituents were introduced into the 2,5‐positions of silole rings. The resulting 2,5‐difluorenyl‐substituted siloles are thermally stable and have low‐lying LUMO energy levels. Crystallographic analysis revealed that intramolecular π–π interactions are prone to form between 9,9′‐spirobifluorene units and phenyl rings at the 3,4‐positions of the silole ring. In the solution state, these new siloles show weak blue and green emission bands, arising from the fluorenyl groups and silole rings with a certain extension of π conjugation, respectively. With increasing substituent volume, intramolecular rotation is decreased, and thus the emissions of the present siloles gradually improved and they showed higher fluorescence quantum yields (Φ_F=2.5–5.4 %) than 2,3,4,5‐tetraphenylsiloles. They are highly emissive in solid films, with dominant green to yellow emissions and good solid‐state Φ_F values (75–88 %). Efficient organic light‐emitting diodes were fabricated by adopting them as host emitters and gave high luminance, current efficiency, and power efficiency of up to 44 100 cd m^?2, 18.3 cd A^?1, and 15.7 lm W^?1, respectively. Notably, a maximum external quantum efficiency of 5.5 % was achieved in an optimized device.     

Supramolecular Sky‐Blue Phosphorescent Polymer Iridium Complexes for Single‐Emissive‐Layer Organic Light‐Emitting Diodes

Novel supramolecular phosphorescent polymers (SPPs) are synthesized as a new class of solution‐processable electroluminescent emitters. The formation of these SPPs takes advantage of the efficient non‐bonding assembly between bis(dibenzo‐24‐crown‐8)‐functionalized iridium complex monomer and bis(dibenzylammonium)‐tethered co‐monomer, which is monitored by ¹H NMR spectroscopy and viscosity measurements. These SPPs show good film morphology and an intrinsic glass transition with a T_g of 94–116 °C. Noticeably, they are highly photoluminescent in solid state with quantum efficiency up to ca. 78%. The photophysical and electroluminescent properties are strongly dependent on the molecular structures of the iridium complex monomers.

     

Poly(3,4‐ethylenedioxythiophene) Derived from Poly(ionic liquid) for the Use as Hole‐Injecting Material in Organic Light‐Emitting Diodes

We report that poly(3,4‐ethylenedioxythiophene) derived from poly(ionic liquid) (PEDOT:PIL) constitutes a unique polymeric hole‐injecting material capable of improving device lifetime in organic light‐emitting diodes (OLEDs). Imidazolium‐based poly(ionic liquid)s were engineered to impart non‐acidic and non‐aqueous properties to PEDOT without compromising any other properties of PEDOT. A fluorescent OLED was fabricated using PEDOT:PIL as a hole‐injection layer and subjected to a performance evaluation test. In comparison with a control device using a conventional PEDOT‐based material, the device with PEDOT:PIL was found to achieve a significant improvement in terms of device lifetime. This improvement was attributed to a lower indium content in the PEDOT:PIL layer, which can be also interpreted as the effective protection characteristics of PEDOT:PIL for indium extraction from the electrodes.

     

Organic Light‐Emitting Diodes Using a Neutral π Radical as Emitter: The Emission from a Doublet

Triplet harvesting is a main challenge in organic light‐emitting devices (OLEDs), because the radiative decay of the triplet is spin‐forbidden. Here, we propose a new kind of OLED, in which an organic open‐shell molecule, (4‐N‐carbazolyl‐2,6‐dichlorophenyl)bis(2,4,6‐trichlorophenyl)methyl (TTM‐1Cz) radical, is used as an emitter, to circumvent the transition problem of triplet. For TTM‐1Cz, there is only one unpaired electron in the highest singly occupied molecular orbital (SOMO). When this electron is excited to the lowest singly unoccupied molecular orbital (SUMO), the SOMO is empty. Thus, transition back of the excited electron to the SOMO is totally spin‐allowed. Spectral analysis showed that electroluminescence of the OLED originated from the electron transition between SUMO and SOMO. The magneto‐electroluminescence measurements revealed that the spin configuration of the excited state of TTM‐1Cz is a doublet. Our results pave a new way to obtain 100 % internal quantum efficiency of OLEDs.     

Layer‐by‐Layer Spin Self‐Assembled Hole Injection Layers Containing a Perfluorinated Ionomer for Efficient Polymer Light‐Emitting Diodes

Deposition of hole injection layers including a perfluorinated ionomer has been demonstrated using layer‐by‐layer spin self‐assembly for enhanced device efficiency and lifetime in PLEDs. We show that the LBL spin self‐assembled thin films enable to control work functions of indium‐tin oxide anodes by changing the PFI concentration and that a resulting green‐emitting device has an enhanced luminescence efficiency and 18 times longer half lifetime than a device using a conventional HIL. We also fabricate a gradient of energy levels by the LBL self‐assembly of the PFI that results in a work function of 5.74 eV, which can be used to improve carrier injection even for an emitting layer whose ionization potential is over 5.7 eV.

     

Luminescent Platinum(II) Complexes of 1,3‐Bis(N‐alkylbenzimidazol‐ 2′‐yl)benzene‐Type Ligands with Potential Applications in Efficient Organic Light‐Emitting Diodes

A series of luminescent platinum(II) complexes of tridentate 1,3‐bis(N‐alkylbenzimidazol‐2′‐yl)benzene (bzimb) ligands has been synthesized and characterized. One of these platinum(II) complexes has been structurally characterized by X‐ray crystallography. Their electrochemical, electronic absorption, and luminescence properties have been investigated. Computational studies have been performed on this class of complexes to elucidate the origin of their photophysical properties. Some of these complexes have been utilized in the fabrication of organic light‐emitting diodes (OLEDs) by using either vapor deposition or spin‐coating techniques. Chloroplatinum(II)? bzimb complexes that are functionalized at the 5‐position of the aryl ring, [Pt(R‐bzimb)Cl], not only show tunable emission color but also exhibit high current and external quantum efficiencies in OLEDs. Concentration‐dependent dual‐emissive behavior was observed in multilayer OLEDs upon the incorporation of pyrenyl ligand into the Pt(bzimb) system. Devices doped with low concentrations of the complexes gave rise to white‐light emission, thereby representing a unique class of small‐molecule, platinum(II)‐based white OLEDs.     

White Polymer Light‐Emitting Diodes Based on Star‐Shaped Polymers with an Orange Dendritic Phosphorescent Core

A series of new star‐shaped polymers with a triphenylamine‐based iridium(III) dendritic complex as the orange‐emitting core and poly(9,9‐dihexylfluorene) (PFH) chains as the blue‐emitting arms is developed towards white polymer light‐emitting diodes (WPLEDs). By fine‐tuning the content of the orange phosphor, partial energy transfer and charge trapping from the blue backbone to the orange core is realized to achieve white light emission. Single‐layer WPLEDs with the configuration of ITO (indium‐tin oxide)/poly(3,4‐ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS)/polymer/CsF/Al exhibit a maximum current efficiency of 1.69 cd A⁻¹ and CIE coordinates of (0.35, 0.33), which is very close to the pure white‐light point of (0.33, 0.33). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report on star‐shaped white‐emitting single polymers that simultaneously consist of fluorescent and phosphorescent species.

     

Electronic Structure Calculations for Hole‐Transporting Triphenylamine Derivatives in Polymer Light‐Emitting Diodes

Hole‐transporting polymers based on polyethene‐triphenylamine derivatives are investigated with respect to their UV/Vis spectra. Two substituents, N‐phenyl‐1‐naphthylamine and carbazole, are examined as their respective polymer light‐emitting diodes (PLEDs) show very different luminous efficiencies. In order to identify the origin of these phenomena electronic structure calculations based on TD‐DFT were performed using monomer models of the hole‐transporting polymers. In experiment these hole‐transporting polymers show very specific differences in their absorption and emission (fluorescence and phosphorescence) spectra. The analysis of the simulated absorption and emission spectra, the MOs as well as the ground and excited state geometries give explanations for the different optical performances of the corresponding PLEDs.

     

Transparent Electrodes Printed with Nanocrystal Inks for Flexible Smart Devices

Transparent electrodes (TEs) are crucial in a wide range of modern electronic and optoelectronic devices. However, traditional TEs cannot meet the requirements of smart devices under development in unique fields, such as electronic skins, wearable electronics, robotic skins, flexible and stretchable displays, and solar cells. Emerging TEs printed with nanocrystal (NC) inks are inexpensive and compatible with solution processes, and have huge potential in flexible, stretchable, and wearable devices. Every development in ink‐based electrodes makes them more competitive for practical applications in various smart devices. Herein, we provide an overview of emergent ink‐based electrodes, such as transparent conducting oxides, metal nanowires, graphene, and carbon nanotubes, and their application in solution‐based flexible and stretchable devices.