Ideal Bipolar Host Materials with Bis-benzimidazole Unit for Highly Efficient Solution-Processed Green Electrophosphorescent Devices

Extraordinary Redox Activities in Ladder-Type Conjugated Molecules Enabled by B ← N Coordination-Promoted Delocalization and Hyperconjugation

The introduction of B ← N coordinate bond-isoelectronic to C-C single bond-into π-systems represents a promising strategy to impart exotic redox and electrochromic properties into conjugated organic molecules and macromolecules. To achieve both reductive and oxidative activities using this strategy, a cruciform ladder-type molecular constitution was designed to accommodate oxidation-active, reduction-active, and B ← N coordination units into a compact structure. Two such compounds (BN-F and BN-Ph) were synthesized via highly efficient N-directed borylation. These molecules demonstrated well-separated, two reductive and two oxidative electron-transfer processes, corresponding to five distinct yet stable oxidation states, including a rarely observed boron-containing radical cation. Spectroelectrochemical measurements revealed unique optical characteristics for each of these reduced/oxidized species, demonstrating multicolor electrochromism with excellent recyclability. Distinct color changes were observed between each redox state with clear isosbestic points on the absorption spectra. The underlying redox mechanism was elucidated by a combination of computational and experimental investigations. Single-crystal X-ray diffraction analysis on the neutral state, the oxidized radical cation, and the reduced dianion of BN-Ph revealed structural transformations into two distinct quinonoid constitutions during the oxidation and reduction processes, respectively. B ← N coordination played an important role in rendering the robust and reversible multistage redox properties, by extending the charge and spin delocalization, by modulating the π-electron density, and by a newly established hyperconjugation mechanism.

Alcohol-Soluble Electron-Transport Materials for Fully Solution-Processed Green PhOLEDs

Two alcohol-soluble electron-transport materials (ETMs), diphenyl(4-(1-phenyl-1H-benzo[d]imidazol-2-yl)phenyl)phosphine oxide (pPBIPO) and (3,5-bis(1-phenyl-1H-benzo[d]imidazol-2-yl)phenyl)diphenylphosphine oxide (mBPBIPO), have been synthesized. The physical properties of these ETMs were investigated and they both exhibited high electron-transport mobilities (1.67×10^-4 and 2.15×10^-4  cm²  V^-1  s^-1 ), high glass-transition temperatures (81 and 110 °C), and low LUMO energy levels (-2.87 and -2.82 eV, respectively). The solubility of PBIPO in n-butyl alcohol was more than 20 mg mL^-1 , which meets the requirement for fully solution-processed organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). Fully solution-processed green-phosphorescent OLEDs were fabricated by using alcohol-soluble PBIPO as electron-transport layers (ETLs), and they exhibited high current efficiencies, power efficiencies, and external quantum efficiencies of up to 38.43 cd A^-1 , 26.64 lm W^-1 , and 10.87 %, respectively. Compared with devices that did not contain PBIPO as an ETM, the performance of these devices was much improved, which indicated the excellent electron-transport properties of PBIPO.

4-Diphenylaminocarbazole: Switching Substituent Position for Voltage Reduction and Efficiency Enhancement of OLEDs

Simple but exceptionally efficient 4-diphenylaminocarbazole host material, 4-DPACz, is presented and compared with its positional isomer, 1-DPACz. The shift of diphenylamino substituent from the 1-position to 4-position of carbazole resulted in an increase in the HOMO energy level as well as an increase in triplet energy level. Having a high triplet energy level (2.76 eV) and well-matched HOMO energy level (-5.61 eV), 4-DPACz showed reduced driving voltage and higher efficiencies for solution-processed green PhOLEDs compated to PVK as well as 1-DPACz. Maximum luminous, power, and external quantum efficiencies reaching to 47.9 cd A^-1, 25.2 lm W^-1, and 14.3%, respectively, were achieved with a device configuration of [ITO/PEDOT:PSS/4-DPACz:Ir(mppy)₃/TPBi/CsF/Al]. Additional enhancement of efficiencies of 4-DPACz was verified when incorporating another dopant, Ir(Si-bppy)₂(acac), resulting in 59.1 cd A^-1, 29.5 lm W^-1, and 15.8%. Furthermore, reduced efficiency roll-off was clearly observed for 4-DPACz compared with PVK. Such improved device characteristics of 4-DPACz were attributed to its high hole mobility and charge balance inside the emitting layer therof. The excellent results using such a simple-structured 4-DPACz could promote various applications of this 4-DPACz unit as a building block structure for further possible oligomeric, dendritic, and polymeric materials.

Synthesis and green phosphorescent OLED device performance of cyanofluorene-linked phenylcarbazoles as host material

A series of three isomeric bipolar host materials for green phosphorescent organic light-emitting diodes (PhOLEDs) was synthesized from a combination of cyanofluorene and N-phenylcarbazole moieties.

Highly Efficient Deep-Blue Electroluminescence from a Charge-Transfer Emitter with Stable Donor Skeleton

Organic materials containing arylamines have been widely used as hole-transporting materials as well as emitters in organic light-emitting devices (OLEDs). However, it has been pointed out that the C-N bonds in these arylamines can easily suffer from degradation in excited states, especially in deep-blue OLEDs. In this work, phenanthro[9,10-d]imidazole (PI) is proposed as a potential donor with higher stability than those of arylamines. Using PI as the donor, a donor-acceptor type deep-blue fluorophore 1-phenyl-2-(4″-(1-phenyl-1H-benzo[d]imidazol-2-yl)-[1,1':4',1″-terphenyl]-4-yl)-1H-phenanthro[9,10-d]imidazole (BITPI) is designed and synthesized. Results from UV-aging test on neat films of BITPI and other three arylamine compounds demonstrate that PI is indeed a more stable donor comparing to common arylamines. An OLED using BITPI as an emitter exhibits good device performances (EQE over 7%) with stable deep-blue emission (color index: (0.15, 0.13)) and longer operation lifetime than the similarly structured device using arylamine-based emitter. Single-organic layer device based on BITPI also shows superior performances, which are comparable to the best results from the arylamine-based donor-acceptor emitters, suggesting that PI is a stable donor with good hole transport/injection capability.

Small organic molecules based on oxazole/thiazole with excellent performances in green and red phosphorescent organic light-emitting diodes

Four small organic host materials based on oxazole/thiazole have been synthesized and fully characterized. The best performance of compound 2d was a maximum current efficiency of 50.7 cd A⁻¹ for green device and a maximum current efficiency of 18.7 cd A⁻¹ for red device.

Enhanced electron affinity and charge balance property of a bipolar material: highly efficient solution-processed deep blue electrofluorescent and green electrophosphorescent devices

The slight move in the ratio of the donor and acceptor group can slightly affect the optoelectronic property as a whole, and consequently modulate the electron affinity, charge balance property and exciton recombination efficiency.

Phenothiazine-based bipolar green-emitters containing benzimidazole units: synthesis, photophysical and electroluminescence properties

A series of bipolar green emitters bearing hole-transporting phenothiazine and electron-transporting N-phenylbenzimidazole are synthesized and characterized by their photophysical, electrochemical and thermal properties.

Solution-processed efficient deep-blue fluorescent organic light-emitting diodes based on novel 9,10-diphenyl-anthracene derivatives

Carbazole substituted 9,10-diphenyl-anthracene derivatives used in deep-blue fluorescence OLED materials with excellent performance.