Triphenylamine-phenylimidazole based hybridized local and charge-transfer molecular as blue-green/ white light emission emitter for light-emitting diode application

Abstract

In this work, a new triphenylamine-phenylimidazole derivative named (E)-N,N-diphenyl-4-(2-(4'-(1-phenyl-1H-benzo[d]imidazole-2-yl)-[1,1′-biphenyl]-4-yl)vinyl)aniline (DPAvlBPI) with hybridized local and charge-transfer (HLCT) characteristics was successfully developed. The undoped organic light-emitting diode (OLED) based on DPAvlBPI (XF-OLED) is prepared with a maximum external quantum efficiency (EQE) of 1.23 %, and the exciton utilization efficiency (EUE) can reach 41 %. The Commission Internationale de L'Eclairage (CIE) color coordinate of XF-OLED is (0.1925, 0.3975), indicating that the device is in the blue-green light region. Since the photoluminescence quantum efficiency (PLQY) of DPAvlBPI in neat film is only 0.12, the maximum brightness of the device is 545 cd m−2. However, by dispersing DPAvlBPI in silica gel at a low concentration, the PLQY can approach 1. Therefore, the DPAvlBPI-based organic/inorganic hybrid LED XF-HBLED is prepared, and the device can achieve a luminous efficacy of 18.64 lm/W and EQE of 9.98 % at an operating current of 64.90 mA. To broaden the application scope of DPAvlBPI, a “Halochromism” white light emission system based on DPAvlBPI has been prepared, and the solution type (XF-SWLED) and solid-state(XF-W2) white light emission device based on this system have been successfully realized. The luminous efficacy of XF-W2 with a CIE coordinate of (0.3205, 0.4363) can reach 14.92 lm/W with an EQE of 8.23 % under the operating current of 64.90 mA. This provides a reference for expanding the multifunctional/multi-device applications of HLCT molecules.