Synergetic interface and morphology modification to achieve highly efficient solution-processed sky-blue organic light-emitting diodes

Abstract

Abstract Solution-processed organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs), especially blue OLEDs, generally suffer from the low efficiency. Herein, we report an efficient approach to achieve high efficiency by synergetic interface and morphology modification with a polymer, Poly(9-vinylcarbazole) (PVK). Sky-blue thermally activated delayed fluorescent (TADF) material, 10-(4-(4,6-diphenyl-1,3,5- triazin-2-yl)phenyl)-10H- spiro[acridine-9,9′-fluorene] (SpiroAC-TRZ), is used as the emitter. The incorporation of PVK thin layer at the hole injection layer/emission layer (EML) interface and a small amount of PVK inner the EML modify the carrier behaviors at the interface and improve the EML morphology. As a result, balanced carrier distribution and reduced carrier recombination are realized at the interface and inner the EML. Through these strategies, the maximum external quantum efficiency and current efficiency of the optimal OLED achieve 25.1% and 53.5 cd/A. To the best of our knowledge, the efficiencies are the highest values ever achieved by the solution-processed sky-blue TADF OLEDs.