Synthesis, characterization and applications of vinylsilafluorene copolymers: New host materials for electroluminescent devices

Abstract

Vinylsilafluorene (VSiF) was successfully synthesized and copolymerized with vinylcarbazole and methyl methacrylate via free radical copolymerization for the first time. The synthesis, photophysical properties, computational modeling studies, and organic light-emitting devices of the VSiF copolymers were presented. The good coordinated photoluminescent (PL) spectra with the absorption of blue light-emitting materials and the high energy band-gap of the VSiF copolymers were observed. Higher triplet band gap (3Eg) to host the blue phosphorescent emitters and better HOMO and LUMO than PVK for electron and hole injection and transportation of the VSiF model compounds were revealed by density functional theory (DFT) calculations. The preliminary device results in applications of these copolymers as host materials for green phosphorescent emitters demonstrate the copolymers of VSiF and vinylcarbazole have comparable device performance of polyvinylcarazole (PVK), suggesting a bright future of VSiF as building blocks for host materials.