Highly Efficient and Stable Blue OLEDs Based on B—N Bonds Embedded 6,12‐Diphenyl‐5,11‐dihydroindolo[3,2‐b]carbazole with Narrowband Emission and Extended Lifetime†

Abstract

Comprehensive SummaryEmitters with narrowband spectra are of great importance nowadays because of the growing demand for ultra‐high‐definition displays in the fields of panel displays and solid‐state lighting. Though the reported multiple resonance (MR) emitters have been widely studied with extremely sharp spectra and color‐tunable emissions, the electrophilic borylation synthetic strategies and stable narrowband blue devices still face great challenges. Herein, by virtue of the advantages of both the MR effect of conventional indolocarbazole skeleton and the easy‐to‐access of B—N covalent bonds, the linear tert‐butyl benzene and carbazole groups modified 6,12‐diphenyl‐5,11‐dihydroindolo[3,2‐b]carbazole derivatives (tPh[BN] and Cz[BN]) containing two B—N covalent bonds are easily constructed through amine‐directed double borylation strategy. Both emitters behaved bright blue emission with full‐width‐at‐half‐maximum (FWHM) of 20—27 nm in solution, high fluorescence quantum efficiency over 90%, and excellent stability toward moisture. By employing triplet‐triplet annihilation electroluminescent mechanism, blue OLED devices based on them showed a small FWHM of 48 nm and maximum external quantum efficiency of ~7.1% with negligible efficiency roll‐off, and long operational lifetime (LT80) of 87 h at an initial brightness of 1000 cd·m−2, demonstrating the enormous application potential of B—N bonds embedded emitters in achieving ideal narrowband blue emitters.