Blue light-emitting electrochemical cells incorporating aggregation-induced emission small molecules

Abstract

The light-emitting electrochemical cells (LECs) have received extensive attention from researchers in recent years due to their simple single-layer structure, air-stable metal electrodes, and low manufacturing cost. So far, reports on the use of LEC active layer emitter materials have mainly focused on ionic transition metal complexes (iTMCs) and conjugated polymers (CPs). The application of the above materials in blue LECs is restricted due to high cost, complicated synthesis process, and poor stability, which results in the slow development of blue LECs. A novel blue LECs device based on aggregation-induced emission (AIE) small molecule (2,3-diphenylbenzo[b]thiophene S, S-sulfur dioxide, DP-BTO) with a peak luminance of 36.58 cd/m2, a CEmax of 1.14 cd/A, and an EQEmax of 0.46% was reported in this work. The blue light emission centered at ~460 nm was exhibited at a voltage above 6 V. This work successfully constructed blue light-emitting LECs devices based on AIE materials, opening up a new research avenue for the application of AIE materials in the field of thin-film device development.