Highly efficient red electrophosphorescent device incorporating a bipolar triphenylamine/bisphenylsulfonyl-substituted fluorene hybrid as the host

Abstract

We have fabricated highly efficient red phosphorescent organic light-emitting diodes (PHOLEDs) incorporating a bipolar host material, 2,7-bis(phenylsulfonyl)-9-[4-(N,N-diphenylamino)phenyl]-9-phenylfluorene (SAF), doped with 7 wt% tris(1-phenylisoquinolinolato-C2,N)iridium(III) [Ir(piq)3]. Attaching the electron-donating (p-type) triphenylamine group onto the electron-accepting (n-type) 2,7-bis(phenylsulfonyl)fluorene segment (through the C9 position of the fluorene unit) imparts SAF with good morphological stability, high triplet energy gap (ET), bipolar transporting ability, and matching energy levels with adjacent carrier-transporting layers. Consequently, the SAF-based red-PHOLED exhibited a very low turn-on voltage (2.4 V) and high electroluminescence efficiencies of 15.8% and 22.0 lm W−1, superior to those of the corresponding device incorporating a conventional host material, 4,4′-N,N′-dicarbazolbiphenyl (CBP; 3.2 V, 8.5%, and 8.4 lm W−1, respectively). At a practical brightness of 1000 cd m−2, the efficiencies of the SAF-based red-PHOLED remained high (13.1%, 14.4 lm W−1).