Electrophosphorescent Heterobimetallic Oligometallaynes and Their Applications in Solution‐Processed Organic Light‐Emitting Devices

By combining the iridium(III) ppy‐type complex (Hppy=2‐phenylpyridine) with a square‐planar platinum(II) unit, some novel phosphorescent oligometallaynes bearing dual metal centers (viz. Ir^III and Pt^II) were developed by combining trans‐[Pt(PBu₃)₂Cl₂] with metalloligands of iridium possessing bifunctional pendant acetylene groups. Photophysical and computational studies indicated that the phosphorescent excited states arising from these oligometallaynes can be ascribed to the triplet emissive Ir^III ppy‐type chromophore, owing to the obvious trait (such as the longer phosphorescent lifetime at 77 K) also conferred by the Pt^II center. So, the two different metal centers show a synergistic effect in governing the photophysical behavior of these heterometallic oligometallaynes. The inherent nature of these amorphous materials renders the fabrication of simple solution‐processed doped phosphorescent organic light‐emitting diodes (PHOLEDs) feasible by effectively blocking the close‐packing of the host molecules. Saliently, such a synergistic effect is also important in affording decent device performance for the solution‐processed PHOLEDs. A maximum brightness of 3 356 cd m^?2 (or 2 708 cd m^?2), external quantum efficiency of 0.50 % (or 0.67 %), luminance efficiency of 1.59 cd A^?1 (or 1.55 cd A^?1), and power efficiency of 0.60 Lm W^?1 (or 0.55 Lm W^?1) for the yellow (or orange) phosphorescent PHOLEDs can be obtained. These results show the great potential of these bimetallic emitters for organic light‐emitting diodes.     

Deep‐red light‐emitting phosphorescent dendrimer encapsulated tris‐[2‐benzo[b]thiophen‐2‐yl‐pyridyl] iridium (III) core for light‐emitting device applications

New deep‐red light‐emitting phosphorescent dendrimers with hole‐transporting carbazole dendrons were synthesized by reacting tris(2‐benzo[b]thiophen‐2‐yl‐pyridyl) iridium (III) complex with carbazolyl dendrons by DCC‐catalyzed esterification. The resulting first‐, second‐, and third‐generation dendrimers were found to be highly efficient as solution‐processable emitting materials and for use in host‐free electrophosphorescent light‐emitting diodes. We fabricated a host‐free dendrimer EL device with configuration ITO/PEDOT:PSS (40 nm)/dendrimer (55 nm)/BCP (10 nm)/Alq₃ (40 nm)/LiF (1 nm)/Al (100 nm) and characterized the device performance. The multilayered devices showed luminance of 561 cd/m² at 383.4 mA/cm² (12 V) for 15 , 1302 cd/m² at 321.3 mA/cm² (14 V) for 16 , and 422 cd/m² at 94.4 mA/cm² (18 V) for 17 . The third‐generation dendrimer, 17 (η_ext = 6.12% at 7.5 V), showed the highest external quantum efficiency (EQE) with an increase in the density of the light‐harvesting carbazole dendron. Three dendrimers exhibited considerably pure deep‐red emission with CIE 1931 (Commission International de L'Eclairage) chromaticity coordinates of x = 0.70, y = 0.30. The CIE coordinates remained very stable with the current density. The integration of rigid hole‐transporting dendrons and phosphorescent complexes provides a new route to design highly efficient solution‐processable materials for dendrimer light‐emitting diode (DLED) applications. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 46: 7517–7533, 2008     

A Versatile Triphenylamine/Fluoranthene‐Based Derivative as a Nondoped Green‐Emitting,Hole‐Transporting Interlayer for Electroluminescent Devices

A new triphenylamine‐bridged fluoranthene derivative, 4‐(7,10‐diphenylfluoranthen‐8‐yl)‐N‐[4‐(7,10‐diphenylfluoranthen‐8‐yl)phenyl]‐N‐phenylaniline (BDPFPA), with a high glass transition temperature of 220 °C has been synthesized and characterized. BDPFPA is a highly fluorescent and versatile material that can be used as a nondoped green emitter and as a hole transporter. BDPFPA was used in a standard trilayer device as the emitting layer, which showed a low turn‐on voltage (<3 V) and a high efficiency of 11.6 cd A^?1. The device also shows little efficiency roll‐off at high brightness. For example, the efficiency can still be maintained at 11.4 cd A^?1 (5.4 lm W^?1) at a brightness of 10 000 cd m^?2. These results are among the best reported for nondoped fluorescent green organic light‐emitting diodes. A simple bilayer device, in which BDPFPA serves as a hole‐transporting layer, has a maximum power efficiency of 3.3 lm W^?1 and the performance is nearly 40 % higher than that of an N,N′‐bis(1‐naphthyl)‐N,N′‐ diphenyl‐1,1′‐biphenyl‐4,4′‐diamine (NPB)‐based standard device.     

Bipolar Heteroleptic Green Iridium Dendrimers Containing Oligocarbazole and Oxadiazole Dendrons for Bright and Efficient Nondoped Electrophosphorescent Devices

Bipolar heteroleptic green light‐emitting iridium (Ir) dendrimers G(OXD) and G(DOXD) have been designed and synthesized under mild conditions in high yields, in which the first C^N and second O^O ligands are functionalized with oligocarbazole‐ and oxadiazole‐based dendrons, respectively. To avoid affecting the optical properties of the emissive iridium core, all the functional moieties are attached to the ligands through a flexible spacer. Compared with the unipolar dendrimer G(acac ), dendrimers G(OXD) and G(DOXD) exhibit the close emission maxima of 511–512 nm and photoluminescence quantum yield of 0.39–0.40 in a solution of toluene. Moreover, on going from G(acac) to G(OXD) and G(DOXD) , we have found that the introduction of oxadiazole fragments decreases the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) energy levels to facilitate the electron injection and electron transporting, while their highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) energy levels remain unchanged. This means that, we can individually tune the HOMO and LUMO energy levels based on the heteroleptic structure to ensure the relative independence between the hole and electron in the emitting layer (EML), which is a favorable feature for bipolar optoelectronic materials. As a result, a bilayer nondoped electrophosphorescent device with G(DOXD) as the EML gives a maximum luminous efficiency of 25.5 cd A⁻¹ (η_ext: 7.4 %) and a brightness of 33 880 cd m⁻². In comparison to G(acac) (17.2 cd A⁻¹, 17 680 cd m⁻²), both the efficiency and brightness are improved by about 1.5 and 2 times, respectively. These state‐of‐the‐art performances indicate the potential of these bipolar heteroleptic iridium dendrimers as solution‐processible emitting materials for nondoped device applications.     

A Red‐Emissive Sextuple Hydrogen‐Bonding Self‐Assembly Molecular Duplex Bearing Perylene Diimide Fluorophores for Warm‐White Organic Light‐Emitting Diode Application

A novel sextuple hydrogen‐bonding (HB) self‐assembly molecular duplex bearing red‐emitting perylene diimide (PDI) fluorophores, namely PDIHB , was synthesized, and its molecular structure was confirmed by ¹H NMR, ¹³C NMR, TOF‐MS and 2D NMR. Compared with the small molecular reference compound PDI , PDIHB shows one time enhanced fluorescence efficiency in solid state (4.1% vs. 2.1%). More importantly, the presence of bulky HB oligoamide strands in PDIHB could trigger effective spatial separation between guest and host fluorophores in thin solid film state, hence inefficient energy transfer occurs between the blue‐emitting host 2TPhNIHB and red guest PDIHB in the 2 wt% guest/host blending film. As a result, a solution‐processed organic light‐emitting diode (OLED) with quite simple device structure of ITO/PEDOT:PSS (40 nm)/PVK (40 nm)/ PDIHB (2 wt%): 2TPhNIHB (50 nm)/LiF (0.8 nm)/Al (100 nm) could emit bias‐independent warm‐white electroluminescence with stable Commission Internationale de L'Eclairage coordinates of (0.42, 0.33), and the maximum brightness and current efficiency of this device are 260 cd·m^?2 and 0.49 cd·A^?1, respectively. All these results indicated that HB self‐assembly supramolecular fluorophores could act as prospective materials for white OLED application.     

Saturated Red‐Emitting Electrophosphorescent Polymers with Iridium Coordinating to β‐Diketonate Units in the Main Chain

Summary: A series of novel copolymers with fluorene‐alt‐carbazole segments and β‐diketonate moieties coordinating to iridium were synthesized by Suzuki polycondensation, and characterized by ¹H NMR, ¹³C NMR, and GPC. In the absorption spectra of the copolymers, metal‐to‐ligand charge‐transfer transitions coming from iridium complex increased in intensity with increasing content of Ir complex in copolymers. The photoluminescence spectra of the copolymers were dominated by emission from the iridium complex with peak at ca. 620 nm even at the feed ratio of the complex as low as 0.5 mol‐%. The electrochemical investigation indicated that the incorporation of carbazole and iridium complex units reduce the barrier for both hole and electron injection compared with the polyfluorene. The light‐emitting diodes using the copolymers as emission layer under different device configurations were fabricated. The devices with 2‐(4‐biphenylyl)‐5‐(4‐tert‐butylphenyl)‐1,3,4‐oxadiazole (PBD) show significantly higher external quantum efficiencies than those without PBD. A saturated red‐emitting polymer light‐emitting diode with emission peak at 628 nm, the maximum external quantum efficiency of 0.6% at the current density (J) of 38.5 mA · cm⁻², and the maximum luminance of 541 cd · m⁻² at 15.8 V was achieved from the device ITO/PEDOT/PFCzIrpiq3 + PBD (40%)/Ba/Al.

Novel copolymers with fluorene‐alt‐carbazole segments and iridium coordinating to β‐diketonate in the main chain.     

Spiro‐Configured Bipolar Host Materials for Highly Efficient Electrophosphorescent Devices

In this study, we synthesized and characterized a series of spirobifluorene‐based bipolar compounds (D2 ACN, DNPACN, DNTACN, and DCzACN) in which a dicyano‐substituted biphenyl branch, linked orthogonally to a donor biphenyl branch bearing various diarylamines, acted as an acceptor unit allowing fine‐tuning of the morphological stability, triplet energy, bipolar transport behavior, and the HOMO and LUMO energy levels. The promising physical properties of these new compounds, together with their ability to transport electrons and holes with balanced mobilities, made them suitable for use as host materials in highly efficient phosphorescent organic light‐emitting diodes (PhOLEDs) with green iridium‐based‐ or red osmium‐based phosphors as the emitting layer (EML). We adopted a multilayer structure to efficiently confine holes and electrons within the EML, thus preventing exciton diffusion and improving device efficiency. The device incorporating D2 ACN doped with the red emitter [Os(bpftz)₂(PPhMe₂)₂] (bpftz=3‐(trifluoromethyl)‐5‐(4‐tert‐butylpyridyl)‐1,2,4‐triazolate) gave a saturated red electrophosphorescence with CIE coordinates of (0.65, 0.35) and remarkably high efficiencies of 20.3 % (21 cd A^?1) and 13.5 Lm W^?1 at a practical brightness of 1000 cd m^?2.     

White‐Light Electroluminescence with Tetraphenylethylene as Emitting Layer of Aggregation‐Induced Emissions Enhancement

Tetraphenylethylene (TPE) based molecules with easy synthesis, good thermal stability, and especially their aggregation‐induced emissions enhancement (AIEE) effect recently become attractive organic emitting materials due to their potentially practical application in OLEDs. Herein, the AIEE behaviors of tetraphenylethylene dyes (TMTPE and TBTPE) were investigated. Fabricated luminesent device using TMTPE dye as emitting layer displays two strong emitting bands: the blue emission coming from the first‐step aggregation and the yellow emission attributed to the second‐step aggregation. Thus, it can be utilized to fabricate the white‐light OLEDs (WOLEDs) of the single‐emitting‐component. A three‐layer device with the brightness of 1200 cd·m^?2 and current ef?ciency of 0.78 cd·A^?1 emits the close to white light with the CIE coordinates of x=0.333 andy=0.358, when applied voltage from 8–13 V, verifying that the TPE‐based dyes of AIEE effect can be effectively applied in single‐emitting‐component WOLEDs fabrication.     

Silicon‐Based Material with Spiro‐Annulated Fluorene/Triphenylamine as Host and Exciton‐Blocking Layer for Blue Electrophosphorescent Devices

A novel silicon‐based compound, 10‐phenyl‐2′‐(triphenylsilyl)‐10H‐spiro[acridine‐9,9′‐fluorene] (SSTF), with spiro structure has been designed, synthesized, and characterized. Its thermal, electronic absorption, and photoluminescence properties were studied. Its energy levels make it suitable as a host material or exciton‐blocking material in blue phosphorescent organic light‐emitting diodes (PhOLEDs). Accordingly, blue‐emitting devices with iridium(III) bis[(4,6‐difluorophenyl)‐pyridinato‐N,C²′]picolinate (FIrpic) as phosphorescent dopant have been fabricated and show high efficiency with low roll‐off. In particular, 44.0 cd A^?1 (41.3 lm W^?1) at 100 cd m^?2 and 41.9 cd A^?1 (32.9 lm W^?1) at 1000 cd m^?2 were achieved when SSTF was used as host material; 28.1 lm W^?1 at 100 cd m^?2 and 20.6 lm W^?1 at 1000 cd m^?2 were achieved when SSTF was used as exciton‐blocking layer. All of the results are superior to those of the reference devices and show the potential applicability and versatility of SSTF in blue PhOLEDs.     

Judicious Choice of N‐Heterocycles for the Realization of Sky‐Blue‐ to Green‐Emitting Carbazolylgold(III) C^C^N Complexes and Their Applications for Organic Light‐Emitting Devices

A new class of sky‐blue‐ to green‐emitting carbazolylgold(III) C^C^N complexes containing pyrazole or benzimidazole moieties has been successfully designed and synthesized. Through the judicious choice of the N‐heterocycles in the cyclometalating ligand and the tailor‐made carbazole moieties, maximum photoluminescence quantum yields of 0.52 and 0.39 have been realized in the green‐ and sky‐blue‐emitting complexes, respectively. Solution‐processed and vacuum‐deposited organic light‐emitting devices (OLEDs) based on the benzimidazole‐containing complexes have been prepared. The sky‐blue‐emitting device shows an emission peaking at 484 nm with a narrow full‐width at half‐maximum of 57 nm (2244 cm^?1), demonstrating the potential of this class of complexes in the application of OLEDs with high color purity. In addition, high maximum external quantum efficiencies of 12.3 % and a long operational half‐lifetime of over 5300 h at 100 cd m^?2 have been achieved in the vacuum‐deposited green‐emitting devices.     

Red Phosphorescent Bis‐Cyclometalated Iridium Complexes with Fluorine‐, Phenyl‐, and Fluorophenyl‐Substituted 2‐Arylquinoline Ligands

Red phosphorescent iridium(III) complexes based on fluorine‐, phenyl‐, and fluorophenyl‐substituted 2‐arylquinoline ligands were designed and synthesized. To investigate their electrophosphorescent properties, devices were fabricated with the following structure: indium tin oxide (ITO)/4,4′,4′′‐tris[2‐naphthyl(phenyl)amino]triphenylamine (2‐TNATA)/4,4′‐bis[N‐(1‐naphthyl)‐N‐phenylamino]biphenyl (NPB)/4,4′‐bis(N‐carbazolyl)‐1,1′‐biphenyl (CBP): 8 % iridium (III) complexes/bathocuproine (BCP)/tris(8‐hydroxyquinolinato)aluminum (Alq₃)/8‐hydroxyquinoline lithium (Liq)/Al. All devices, which use these materials showed efficient red emissions. In particular, a device exhibited a saturated red emission with a maximum luminance, external quantum efficiency, and luminous efficiency of 14200 cd m^?2, 8.44 %, and 6.58 cd A^?1 at 20 mA cm^?2, respectively. The CIE (x, y) coordinates of this device are (0.67, 0.33) at 12.0 V.     

A Novel trans‐1‐(9‐Anthryl)‐2‐phenylethene Derivative Containing a Phenanthroimidazole Unit for Application in Organic Light‐Emitting Diodes

Aryl‐substituted phenanthroimidazoles (PIs) have attracted tremendous attention in the field of organic light‐emitting diodes (OLEDs), because they are simple to synthesize and have excellent thermal properties, high photoluminescence quantum yields (PLQYs), and bipolar properties. Herein, a novel blue–green emitting material, (E)‐2‐{4′‐[2‐(anthracen‐9‐yl)vinyl]‐[1,1′‐biphenyl]‐4‐yl}‐1‐phenyl‐1H‐phenanthro[9,10‐d]imidazole (APE‐PPI), containing a t‐APE [1‐(9‐anthryl)‐2‐phenylethene] core and a PI moiety was designed and synthesized. Owing to the PI skeleton, APE‐PPI possesses high thermal stability and a high PLQY, and the compound exhibits bipolar transporting characteristics, which were identified by single‐carrier devices. Nondoped blue–green OLEDs with APE‐PPI as the emitting layer show emission at λ=508 nm, a full width at half maximum of 82 nm, a maximum brightness of 9042 cd m^?2, a maximum current efficiency of 2.14 cd A^?1, and Commission Internationale de L'Eclairage (CIE) coordinates of (0.26, 0.55). Furthermore, a white OLED (WOLED) was fabricated by employing APE‐PPI as the blue–green emitting layer and 4‐(dicyanomethylene)‐2‐tert‐butyl‐6‐(1,1,7,7‐tetramethyljulolidin‐4‐yl‐vinyl)‐4H‐pyran (DCJTB) doped in tris‐(8‐hydroxyquinolinato)aluminum (Alq₃) as the red–green emitting layer. This WOLED exhibited a maximum brightness of 10029 cd m^?2, a maximum current efficiency of 16.05 cd A^?1, CIE coordinates of (0.47, 0.47), and a color rendering index (CRI) of 85. The high performance of APE‐PPI‐based devices suggests that the t‐APE and PI combination can potentially be used to synthesize efficient electroluminescent materials for WOLEDs.     

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.     

An Easy Route to Red Emitting Homoleptic IrIII Complex for Highly Efficient Solution‐Processed Phosphorescent Organic Light‐Emitting Diodes

A thiophene‐phenylquinoline‐based homoleptic Ir^III complex, [Ir(Th‐PQ)₃], has been synthesised by a simple route and utilised as a dopant in solution‐processed phosphorescent organic light‐emitting diodes (PhOLEDs). It shows the current efficiency of approximately 26 cd A^?1 and the external quantum efficiency of about 21 %, which are the highest values reported to date for PhOLEDs prepared by solution‐process.     

High‐Performance Perovskite Light‐Emitting Diode with Enhanced Operational Stability Using Lithium Halide Passivation

Defect passivation has been demonstrated to be effective in improving the radiative recombination of charge carriers in perovskites, and consequently, the device performance of the resultant perovskite light‐emitting diodes (LEDs). State‐of‐the‐art useful passivation agents in perovskite LEDs are mostly organic chelating molecules that, however, simultaneously sacrifice the charge‐transport properties and thermal stability of the resultant perovskite emissive layers, thereby deteriorating performance, and especially the operational stability of the devices. We demonstrate that lithium halides can efficiently passivate the defects generated by halide vacancies and reduce trap state density, thereby suppressing ion migration in perovskite films. Efficient green perovskite LEDs based on all‐inorganic CsPbBr₃ perovskite with a peak external quantum efficiency of 16.2 %, as well as a high maximum brightness of 50 270 cd m^?2, are achieved. Moreover, the device shows decent stability even under a brightness of 10⁴ cd m^?2. We highlight the universal applicability of defect passivation using lithium halides, which enabled us to improve the efficiency of blue and red perovskite LEDs.     

High‐efficiency doped polymeric organic light‐emitting diodes

Fabrication of polymer light‐emitting diodes based on emission from the phosphorescent molecule fac‐tris(2‐phenylpyridine) iridium doped into a poly(N‐vinyl carbazole) host are reported. For single‐layered devices with magnesium‐silver cathodes, the luminance efficiency at 20 mA/cm² was measured as 8.7 cd/A. This efficiency could be increased by over a factor of two by incorporation of evaporated small‐molecule layers into the device structure. Significant increases in device efficiency were also obtained without these evaporated layers by modification of the electrodes. Incorporation of 3,4‐poly(ethylene dioxythiophene):poly(styrene sulfonate) at the anode improved the device efficiency but had little impact on drive voltage. Insertion of lithium fluoride at the cathode resulted in no improvement in performance for magnesium‐silver and aluminum cathodes, but a significant improvement was realized in efficiency and drive voltage for calcium‐aluminum cathodes. Excellent device performance was observed for all three cathode metals used in conjunction with cesium fluoride. Through optimization of the electrodes and emitter‐layer thickness, devices exhibiting efficiencies as high as 37.3 cd/A are realized. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 41: 2715–2725, 2003     

A Bipolar Transporter as an Efficient Green Fluorescent Emitter and Host for Red Phosphors in Multi‐ and Single‐Layer Organic Light‐Emitting Diodes

Multifunctional donor–acceptor compound 4,4′‐bis(dibenzothiophene‐S,S‐dioxide‐2‐yl)triphenylamine ( DSTPA ) was obtained by linking a strongly electron‐withdrawing core and a strongly electron‐donating core with a biphenyl bridge in linear spatial alignment. DSTPA not only has suitable HOMO and LUMO levels for easily accepting both holes and electrons, it was also demonstrated to have a high fluorescence quantum yield of 0.98 and a high triplet energy level of 2.39 eV. Versatile applications of DSTPA for bipolar transport, green fluorescent emission, and sensitizing a red phosphor were systematically investigated in a series of multi‐ and single‐layer organic light‐emitting devices. In traditional multilayer devices, it shows excellent performance both in an undoped fluorescent device (used as a green emitter and achieving maximum current and power efficiencies (CE and PE) of 12.6 cd A^?1 and 9.4 Lm W^?1, respectively) and in a red phosphorescent device (used as a host and achieving maximum CE and PE of 26.4 cd A^?1 and 26.3 Lm W^?1, respectively). Furthermore, DSTPA was also simultaneously used as an emitter, a hole transporter, and an electron transporter in a single‐layer device showing CE and PE of 5.1 cd A^?1 and 4.7 Lm W^?1, respectively. A single‐layer red phosphorescent device with efficiencies of 11.7 cd A^?1 and 12.6 Lm W^?1 was obtained by doping DSTPA with a red phosphor. The performances of all of the devices in this work are comparable to the best of their corresponding classes in the literature.     

Synthesis,Structure, Properties,and Application of a Carbazole‐Based Diaza[7]helicene in a Deep‐Blue‐Emitting OLED

A carbazole‐based diaza[7]helicene, 2,12‐dihexyl‐2,12‐diaza[7]helicene ( 1 ), was synthesized by a photochemical synthesis and its use as a deep‐blue dopant emitter in an organic light‐emitting diode (OLED) was examined. Compound 1 exhibited good solubility and excellent thermal stability with a high decomposition temperature (T_d=372.1 °C) and a high glass‐transition temperature (T_g, up to 203.0 °C). Single‐crystal structural analysis of the crystalline clathrate ( 1 )₂ ? cyclohexane along with a theoretical investigation revealed a non‐planar‐fused structure of compound 1 , which prevented the close‐packing of molecules in the solid state and kept the molecule in a good amorphous state, which allowed the optimization of the properties of the OLED. A device with a structure of ITO/NPB (50 nm)/CBP:5 % 1 (30 nm)/BCP (20 nm)/Mg:Ag (100 nm)/Ag (50 nm) showed saturated blue light with Commission Internationale de L’Eclairage (CIE) coordinates of (0.15, 0.10); the maximum luminance efficiency and brightness were 0.22 cd A^?1 (0.09 Lm W^?1) and 2365 cd m^?2, respectively. This new class of helicenes, based on carbazole frameworks, not only opens new possibilities for utilizing helicene derivatives in deep‐blue‐emitting OLEDs but may also have potential applications in many other fields, such as molecular recognition and organic nonlinear optical materials.     

Phosphorescence Color Tuning by Ligand,and Substituent Effects of Multifunctional Iridium(III) Cyclometalates with 9‐Arylcarbazole Moieties

The synthesis, isomeric studies, and photophysical characterization of a series of multifunctional cyclometalated iridium(III) complexes containing a fluoro‐ or methyl‐substituted 2‐[3‐(N‐phenylcarbazolyl)]pyridine molecular framework are presented. All of the complexes are thermally stable solids and highly efficient electrophosphors. The optical, electrochemical, photo‐, and electrophosphorescence traits of these iridium phosphors have been studied in terms of the electronic nature and coordinating site of the aryl or pyridyl ring substituents. The correlation between the functional properties of these phosphors and the results of density functional theory calculations was made. Arising from the propensity of the electron‐rich carbazolyl group to facilitate hole injection/transport, the presence of such a moiety can increase the highest‐occupied molecular orbital levels and improve the charge balance in the resulting complexes relative to the parent phosphor with 2‐phenylpyridine ligands. Remarkably, the excited‐state properties can be manipulated through ligand and substituent effects that allow the tuning of phosphorescence energies from bluish green to deep red. Electrophosphorescent organic light‐emitting diodes (OLEDs) with outstanding device performance can be fabricated based on these materials, which show a maximum current efficiency of approximately 43.4 cd A^?1, corresponding to an external quantum efficiency of approximately 12.9 % ph/el (photons per electron) and a power efficiency of approximately 33.4 Lm W^?1 for the best device. The present work provides a new avenue for the rational design of multifunctional iridium–carbazolyl electrophosphors, by synthetically tailoring the carbazolyl pyridine ring that can reveal a superior device performance coupled with good color‐tuning versatility, suitable for multicolor‐display technology.     

Efficient Red Electroluminescent Devices with Sterically Hindered Phosphorescent Platinum(II) Schiff Base Complexes and Iridium Complex Codopant

Sterically hindered platinum(II) Schiff base complexes were prepared. Complex 4 , which displays red emission with a quantum yield of 0.29 in a thin film and a self‐quenching rate constant of 1×10^?7 dm³ mol^?1 s^?1, was used to fabricate organic light‐emitting diodes with single or double emissive layers (EMLs). An iridium(III) complex with a wide band gap was codoped into the electron‐dominant EML to act as a deep electron trapper, and red‐light‐emitting devices with the highest current, power, and external quantum efficiencies of 20.43 cd A^?1 18.33 Lm W^?1, and 11.7 %, respectively, were fabricated. A high current efficiency and EQE of up to 14.69 cd A^?1 and 8.3 %, respectively, were achieved at a high brightness of 1000 cd m^?2. The significant delay of efficiency roll‐off is attributed to the bulky 3D structure of the norbornene moiety at the periphery of the Schiff base ligand of 4 and to the new device design strategy. The fabricated device had a projected lifetime (LT50) of 18 000 h.