Solution-processible conjugated electrophosphorescent polymers

We report the synthesis and photophysical study of a series of solution-processible phosphorescent iridium complexes. These comprise bis-cyclometalated iridium units [Ir(ppy)(2)(acac)] or [Ir(btp)(2)(acac)] where ppy is 2-phenylpyridinato, btp is 2-(2'-benzo[b]thienyl)pyridinato, and acac is acetylacetonate. The iridium units are covalently attached to and in conjugation with oligo(9,9-dioctylfluorenyl-2,7-diyl) [(FO)(n)] to form complexes [Ir(ppy-(FO)(n))(2)(acac)] or [Ir(btp-(FO)(n))(2)(acac)], where the number of fluorene units, n, is 1, 2, 3, approximately 10, approximately 20, approximately 30, or approximately 40. All the complexes exhibit emission from a mixed triplet state in both photoluminescence and electroluminescence, with efficient quenching of the fluorene singlet emission. Short-chain complexes, 11-13, [Ir(ppy-(FO)(n)-FH)(2)(acac)] where n = 0, 1, or 2, show green light emission, red-shifted through the FO attachment by about 70 meV, but for longer chains there is quenching because of the lower energy triplet state associated with polyfluorene. In contrast, polymer complexes 18-21 [Ir(btp-(FO)(n))(2)(acac)] where n is 5-40 have better triplet energy level matching and can be used to provide efficient red phosphorescent polymer light-emitting diodes, with a red shift due to the fluorene attachment of about 50 meV. We contrast this small (50-70 meV) and short-range modification of the triplet energies through extended conjugation, with the much more substantial evolution of the pi-pi* singlet transitions, which saturate at about n = 10. These covalently bound materials show improvements in efficiency over simple blends and will form the basis of future investigations into energy-transfer processes occurring in light-emitting diodes.     

Molecular design of efficient white‐light‐emitting fluorene‐based copolymers by mixing singlet and triplet emission

A new strategy to realize efficient white‐light emission from a binary fluorene‐based copolymer (PF‐Phq) with the fluorene segment as a blue emitter and the iridium complex, 9‐iridium(III)bis(2‐(2‐phenyl‐quinoline‐N,C³′)(11,13‐tetradecanedionate))‐3,6‐carbazole (Phq), as a red emitter has been proposed and demonstrated. The photo‐ and electroluminescence properties of the PF‐Phq copolymers were investigated. White‐light emission with two bands of blue and red was achieved from the binary copolymers. The efficiency increased with increasing concentration of iridium complex, which resulted from its efficient phosphorescence emission and the weak phosphorescent quenching due to its lower triplet energy level than that of polyfluorene. In comparison with the binary copolymer, the efficiency and color purity of the ternary copolymers (PF‐Phq‐BT) were improved by introducing fluorescent green benzothiadiazole (BT) unit into polyfluorene backbone. This was ascribed to the exciton confinement of the benzothiadiazole unit, which allowed efficient singlet energy transfer from fluorene segment to BT unit and avoided the triplet quenching resulted from the higher triplet energy levels of phosphorescent green emitters than that of polyfluorene. The phosphorescence quenching is a key factor in the design of white light‐emitting polyfluorene with triplet emitter. It is shown that using singlet green and triplet red emitters is an efficient approach to reduce and even avoid the phosphorescence quenching in the fluorene‐based copolymers. The strategy to incorporate singlet green emitter to polyfluorene backbone and to attach triplet red species to the side chain is promising for white polymer light‐emitting diodes. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 46: 453–463, 2008     

Synthesis and properties of electrophosphorescent chelating polymers with iridium complexes in the conjugated backbone

The synthesis of electrophosphorescent chelating polymers by Suzuki polycondensation of A-A- and B-B-type monomers is described, in which the fluorene-alt-carbazole (PFCz) segment is used as polymer backbone. By using alkyl-substituted ligands of iridium complex monomers, chelating copolymers with higher contents of iridium complex can be synthesized. Chemical and photophysical characterization confirm that the Ir complex is incorporated into the polymer backbone as one of the monomer repeat units by means of two 5-bromotolylpyridine ligands. Chelating polymers with Ir complexes in the conjugated polymer backbone show highly efficient energy transfer of excitons from the PFCz host segment to the Ir complex by an intramolecular trapping mechanism. The external quantum and luminous efficiencies of a device made with PFCzMppyIrhm4 copolymer reach 4.1 % ph/el (photons/electron) and 5.4 cd A(-1), respectively, at a current density of 32.2 mA cm(-2), an emission peak of 577 nm, and a luminance of 1730 cd cm(-2). Most important, the devices made from the chelating copolymers show no notable efficiency decay with increasing current density due to reduced concentration quenching and triplet-triplet (T-T) annihilation. This indicates that incorporation of the phosphorescent complex into the rigid conjugated polymer main chain is a new way to simultaneously realize high efficiency, long-term stability, and simple processing of phosphorescent polymer light-emitting diodes.     

High-efficiency red-light emission from polyfluorenes grafted with cyclometalated iridium complexes and charge transport moiety

We report a new route for the design of electroluminescent polymers by grafting high-efficiency phosphorescent organometallic complexes as dopants and charge transport moieties onto alky side chains of fully conjugated polymers for polymer light-emitting diodes (PLED) with single layer/single polymers. The polymer system studied involves polyfluorene (PF) as the base conjugated polymer, carbazole (Cz) as the charge transport moiety and a source for green emission by forming an electroplex with the PF main chain, and cyclometalated iridium (Ir) complexes as the phosphorescent dopant. Energy transfer from the green Ir complex or an electroplex formed between the fluorene main chain and side-chain carbazole moieties, in addition to that from the PF main chain, to the red Ir complex can significantly enhance the device performance, and a red light-emitting device with the high efficiency 2.8 cd/A at 7 V and 65 cd/m2, comparable to that of the same Ir complex-based OLED, and a broad-band light-emitting device containing blue, green, and red peaks (2.16 cd/A at 9 V) are obtained.     

电磷光发光聚合物*

电致磷光材料可以同时利用单线态和三线态激子发光,具有较高的发光效率,受到人们广泛的关注。本文综述了近年来通过共价键将磷光配合物单元连接在高分子链上制备电磷光发光聚合物的研究进展。总结了主链型、侧链型以及超支化结构的电磷光发光聚合物的研究进展,评述了上述几类电磷光聚合物的发光性能与分子结构的关系。最后从电磷光发光聚合物的分子结构设计出发,在电磷光发光聚合物领域业已取得进展的基础上,分析了电磷光发光聚合物在电致发光领域应用中存在的一些问题,并展望了电磷光聚合物今后的发展方向。     

Synthesis and characterization of a polyfluorene containing carbazole and oxadiazole dipolar pendent groups and its application to electroluminescent devices

We have synthesized a blue‐light‐emitting polyfluorene (PF) derivative ( PF‐CBZ‐OXD ) that presents bulky hole‐transporting carbazole and electron‐transporting oxadiazole pendent groups functionalized at the C‐9 positions of alternating fluorene units. The results from photoluminescence and electrochemical measurements indicate that both the side chains and the PF main chain retain their own electronic characteristics in the copolymer. An electroluminescent device incorporating this polymer as the emitting layer was turned on at 4.5 V; it exhibited a stable blue emission with a maximum external quantum efficiency of 1.1%. Moreover, we doped PF‐CBZ‐OXD and its analogue PF‐TPA‐OXD with a red‐light‐emitting iridium phosphor for use as components of phosphorescent red‐light emitters to investigate the effect of the host's HOMO energy level on the degree of charge trapping and on the electrophosphorescent efficiency. We found that spectral overlap and individual energy level matching between the host and guest were both crucial features affecting the performance of the electroluminescence devices. Atomic force microscopy measurements indicated that the dipolar nature of PF‐CBZ‐OXD , in contrast to the general nonpolarity of polydialkylfluorenes, provided a stabilizing environment that allowed homogeneous dispersion of the polar iridium triplet dopant. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 45: 2925–2937, 2007     

磷光客体三重态能级对基于PVK主体的电致发光器件的影响

将磷光客体掺入PVK:PBD主体材料中是获得高效率磷光电致发光器件 (PhPLED)的有效途径.然而,分别掺杂Ir(pppy)₃、Ir(F-pppy)₃和Ir(F₂-pppy)₃三种磷光客体的PhPLED器件性能件却显著不同.我们分别模拟主-客体间能量转移和客体直接捕获电子空穴对两种机制,研究了三种客体材料的磷光发射及其衰减过程.研究表明:平衡的载流子注入和客体高效率的载流子捕获是实现Ir-配合物掺杂的PhPLED器件性能优良的主要机制,PVK较低的三重态能级使其无法成为蓝光磷光电致发光器件的主体,在PVK中掺入PBD的方法,则进一步降低了主体材料的三重态能级,这是蓝光磷光电致发光器件运行效率较低的主要原因.本文的研究结果可为高分子磷光电致发光器件的制备技术和新型磷光主体的设计提供参考.     

Energy transfer and triplet exciton confinement in polymeric electrophosphorescent devices

Energy transfer and triplet exciton confinement in polymer/phosphorescent dopant systems have been investigated. Various combinations of host‐guest systems have been studied, consisting of two host polymers, poly(vinylcarbazole) (PVK) and poly[9,9‐bis(octyl)‐fluorene‐2,7‐diyl] (PF), blended with five different phosphorescent iridium complexes with different triplet energy levels. These combinations of hosts and dopants provide an ideal situation for studying the movement of triplet excitons between the host polymers and dopants. The excitons either can be confined at the dopant sites or can flow to the host polymers, subject to the relative position of the triplet energy levels of the material. For PF, because of its low triplet energy level, the exciton can flow back from the dopants to PF when the dopant has a higher triplet energy and subsequently quench the device efficiency. In contrast, efficient electrophosphorescence has been observed in doped PVK films because of the high triplet energy level of PVK. Better energy transfer from PVK to the dopants, as well as triplet exciton confinement on the dopants, leads to higher device performance than found in PF devices. Efficiencies as high as 16, 8.0, and 2.6 cd/A for green, yellow, and red emissions, respectively, can be achieved when PVK is selected as the host polymer. The results in this study show that the energy transfer and triplet exciton confinement have a pronounced influence on the device performance. In addition, this study also provides material design and selection rules for the efficient phosphorescent polymer light‐emitting diodes. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 41: 2681–2690, 2003     

Phosphorescence quenching by conjugated polymers

Energy transfer between phosphors and conjugated polymers was investigated using a fluorene trimer (F3) as a model conjugated material. The phosphors studied were bis-cyclometalated iridium complexes (FP, PPY, BT, PQ, and BTP), with triplet energies of 2.6, 2.4, 2.2, 2.1, and 2.0 eV, respectively (based on phosphorescence spectra). Stern-Volmer analysis of luminescent quenching shows that energy transfer from either FP or PPY to F3 is an exothermic process with Stern-Volmer quenching constants (kqSV) of near 109 M-1 s-1 while energy transfer from BT, PQ, and BTP is endothermic (kqSV = 107-106 M-1 s-1). On the the basis of above results, the triplet energy of F3 is estimated to be less than 2.3 eV (530 nm). This study suggests that conjugated polymers, which typically have lower T1 energies than F3, should also quench phosphorescent emission in thin films and organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) incorporating these and related phosphorescent dopants.     

Carbazole compounds as host materials for triplet emitters in organic light-emitting diodes: polymer hosts for high-efficiency light-emitting diodes

A carbazole homopolymer and carbazole copolymers based on 9,9'-dialkyl-[3,3']-bicarbazolyl, 2,5-diphenyl-[1,3,4]-oxadiazole and 9,9-bis(4-[3,7-dimethyloctyloxy]phenyl)fluorene were synthesized and their electrical and photophysical properties were characterized with respect to their application as host in phosphorescent polymer light-emitting diodes. It is shown that the triplet energy of a polymer depends on the specific connections between its building blocks. Without changing the composition of the polymer, its triplet energy can be increased from 2.3 to 2.6 eV by changing the way in which the different building blocks are coupled together. For poly(9-vinylcarbazole) (PVK), a carbazole polymer often used as host for high-energy triplet emitters in polymer light-emitting diodes, a large hole-injection barrier of about 1 eV exists due to the low-lying HOMO level of PVK. For all carbazole polymers presented here, the HOMO levels are much closer to the Fermi level of a commonly used anode such as ITO and/or a commonly used hole-injection layer such as PEDOT:PSS. This makes high current densities and consequently high luminance levels possible at moderate applied voltages in polymer light-emitting diodes. A double-layer polymer light-emitting diode is constructed comprising a PEDOT:PSS layer as hole-injection layer and a carbazole-oxadiazole copolymer doped with a green triplet emitter as emissive layer that shows an efficacy of 23 cd/A independent of current density and light output.     

Effective shielding of triplet energy transfer to conjugated polymer by its dense side chains from phosphor dopant for highly efficient electrophosphorescence

To examine the quenching of a triplet exciton by low triplet energy (E(T)) polymer hosts with different chain configurations for high E(T) phosphor guests, the quenching rate constant measurements were carried out and analyzed by the standard Stern-Volmer equation. We found that an effective shielding of triplet energy transfer from a high E(T) phosphor guest to a low E(T) polymer host is possible upon introducing dense side chains to the polymer to block direct contact from the guest such that the possibility of Dexter energy transfer between them is reduced to a minimum. Together with energy level matching to allow charge trapping on the guest, high device efficiency can be achieved. The extent of shielding for the systems of phenylene-based conjugated structures from iridium complexes follows the sequence di-substituted (octoxyl chain) in the para position (dC8OPPP) is greater than monosubstituted (mC8OPPP) and the PPPs with longer side chains are much higher than a phenylene tetramer (P4) with two short methyl groups. Further, capping the dialkoxyl-susbstituents with a carbazole (Cz) moiety (CzPPP) provides enhanced extent of shielding. Excellent device efficiency of 30 cd/A (8.25%) for a green electrophosphorescent device can be achieved with CzPPP as a host, which is higher than that of dC8OPPP as host (15 cd/A). The efficiency is higher than those of high E(T) conjugated polymers, poly(3,6-carbazole) derivatives, as hosts (23 cd/A). This observation suggests a new route for molecular design of electroluminescent polymers as a host for a phosphorescent dopant.     

Simple bipolar molecules constructed from biphenyl moieties as host materials for deep-blue phosphorescent organic light-emitting diodes

Simple is good! Based on biphenyl molecules, two bipolar host materials with high triplet energies have been rationally designed, synthesized, and fully characterized. Deep blue phosphorescent organic light-emitting diodes, which employ the new hosts and an iridium(III) complex as triplet emitter, show a maximum current efficiency of 40 cd A(-1), a maximum power efficiency of 36 lm W(-1), and a maximum external quantum efficiency of 19.5 %.     

Phosphorescent resonant energy transfer between iridium complexes

The mechanism for triplet energy transfer from the green-emitting fac-tris[2-(4'-tert-butylphenyl)pyridinato]iridium (Ir(tBu-ppy)3) complex to the red-emitting bis[2-(2'-benzothienyl)pyridinato-N,C3')(acetylacetonato)iridium (Ir(btp)2(acac)) phosphor has been investigated using steady-state and time-resolved photoluminescence spectroscopy. [2,2';5,'2' ']Terthiophene (3T) was also used as triplet energy acceptor to differentiate between the two common mechanisms for energy transfer, i.e., the direct exchange of electrons (Dexter transfer) or the coupling of transition dipoles (F?rster transfer). Unlike Ir(btp)2(acac), 3T can only be active in Dexter energy transfer because it has a negligible ground state absorption to the 3(pi-pi*) state. The experiments demonstrate that in semidilute solution, the 3MLCT state of Ir(tBu-ppy)3 can transfer its triplet energy to the lower-lying 3(pi-pi*) states of both Ir(btp)2(acac) and 3T. For both acceptors, this transfer occurs via a diffusion-controlled reaction with a common rate constant (ken = 3.8 x 10(9) L mol-1 s-1). In a solid-state polymer matrix, the two acceptors, however, show entirely different behavior. The 3MLCT phosphorescence of Ir(tBu-ppy)3 is strongly quenched by Ir(btp)2(acac) but not by 3T. This reveals that under conditions where molecular diffusion is inhibited, triplet energy transfer only occurs via the F?rster mechanism, provided that the transition dipole moments involved on energy donor and acceptor are not negligible. With the use of the F?rster radius for triplet energy transfer from Ir(tBu-ppy)3 to Ir(btp)2(acac) of R0 = 3.02 nm, the experimentally observed quenching is found to agree quantitatively with a model for F?rster energy transfer that assumes a random distribution of acceptors in a rigid matrix.     

新型黄色磷光吡嗪铱(Ⅲ)配合物的合成及发光性质

利用2,3-二苯基吡嗪与水合三氯化铱反应合成了一种新型吡嗪铱的配合物[Ir(dphp)₂(acac)],通过元素分析,¹HNMR和MS对配合物结构进行了表征,并研究了配合物的吸收光谱和光致发光光谱.利用该材料作为磷光染料制备了结构为[ITO/NPB(30nm)/NPB;8%[Ir(dphp)₂(acac)](25nm)/PBD(10nm)/Alq₃(30nm)/Mg;Ag(质量比9;1)(130nm)的电致发光器件,研究了其电致发光光谱.结果表明,该配合物在393和528nm处存在单重态¹MLCT(金属到配体的电荷跃迁)和三重态³MLCT的吸收峰;荧光光谱结果显示,在588nm处有较强的金属配合物三重态的磷光发射;电致发光光谱显示,该器件的启动电压是3.25V,器件的最大亮度为11478cd/m²,外量子效率为13.85%,器件的流明效率为15.54lm/W,是一种新型的高效率黄色磷光材料.     

新型红光电磷光芴-alt-咔唑共聚物的合成与发光性能

通过Suzuki聚合反应合成了一系列以芴-alt-咔唑为主链, 铱配合物为侧链的深红色电磷光共轭聚合物. 发光器件结构为ITO/PEDOT∶PSS/PVK/Copolymer/Ba/Al, 基于共聚物PFCzIrNiq-1的器件在电流密度为9.4 mA/cm2时, 最大外量子效率为0.23%, 最大发射波长为680 nm.     

具有电子传输特性的Be金属配合物作为磷光主体材料的电致发光性能

采用具有优良电子传输特性的铍金属配合物二合铍(Ⅱ)(Bempp)作为磷光客体材料二(2-苯基吡啶)(N,N'-二异丙基苯甲脒)合铱(Ⅲ)(PPP)的主体材料制备磷光电致发光器件. 与经典的空穴传输型主体材料4,4'-二(N-咔唑)联苯(CBP)相比, Bempp更有利于空穴、 电子的注入及传输的平衡, 与PPP间存在更高效的能量转移. 该器件的各项性能指标, 包括最大效率和流明效率(63.1 cd/A和54.0 lm/W), 均明显高于采用CBP作为主体材料的磷光器件.     

一种新型吡嗪铱（Ⅲ）配合物的合成及其磷光性质

利用5-甲基-2,3-二苯基吡嗪（MDPP）和水合三氯化铱（IrCl3•H2O）,合成了一种新型吡嗪铱配合物Ir (MDPP)2 (acac).通过1H NMR、元素分析和质谱方法对配合物结构进行了表征,并研究了配合物的吸收光谱和光致发光光谱.结果表明,配合物Ir (MDPP)2(acac)在393和528 nm处存在单重态1MLCT（金属到配体的电荷跃迁）和三重态3MLCT的吸收;在588 nm 处有较强的金属配合物三重态的磷光发射,是一种绿色磷光材料.     

高效溶液法小分子磷光电致发光器件研究

以小分子化合物CDBP[4,4′-bis(carbazol-9-yl)-9,9-dimethyl-fluorene]为主体材料,Ir(pppy)3[tris(5-phenyl-10,10-dimethyl-4-aza-tricycloundeca-2,4,6-triene)Iridium(III)]为磷光客体材料,采用溶液法和真空蒸镀法相结合的制备工艺,制作了小分子磷光电致发光器件.研究表明,通过器件结构的优化,Ir(pppy)3(重量百分比为2)掺杂的多层绿光电致发光器件效率达22.0 cd/A,最大亮度达到26600 cd/m²,这一结果可与当今基于真空蒸镀的小分子或基于溶液法的高分子磷光电致发光器件性能相媲美.本工作为降低有机电致发光器件的成本,扩展溶液法有机电致发光器件制备工艺中材料的选择范围提供了实验依据.     

基于磷光材料的电致发光二极管研究进展

电致发光二极管(LEDs)具有能耗低、寿命长、绿色环保等优点,在固态照明、全色显示等领域具有广阔的应用前景。 与传统的荧光电致LEDs相比,磷光电致LEDs能够同时利用单重态和三重态激子,理论上可以使器件的内量子效率达到100%,突破5%的外量子效率极限。 因此,发展高效的磷光材料以及实现其在电致LEDs中的应用是非常有意义的。 本文综述了目前主要的磷光材料,包括有机金属配合物、纯有机分子、聚合物、金属有机框架材料和碳量子点等,并总结了稀有金属配合物和纯有机分子在电致磷光 LEDs中的研究进展,同时对电致磷光LEDs的发展前景进行展望。     

Efficient and Low-voltage Phosphorescent Organic Light-emitting Devices Based on Blue Iridium Complex Host

By adopting a phosphorescent host/guest system consisting of blue iridium complex as host and a series of phosphorescent dyes as guest, efficient and low-voltage monochromic organic light-emitting devices(OLEDs) were fabricated. The devices with blue iridium host have higher power efficiency than the device with the conventional host 4,4'-N,N'-dicarbazole-biphenyl. The enhancement of the maximum power efficiency in green phosphorescent device can reach 37.2%. Dichromatic white OLED could be achieved by simply adjusting the concentration of the orange dyes. At a brightness of 1000 cd/m², the power efficiency of the white device is 8.4 lm/W with a color rendering index of 76.