Simple Bipolar Host Materials for High-Efficiency Blue, Green, and White Phosphorescence OLEDs

3-(1<i>H</i>-Pyrazol-1-yl)­pyridine is used as electron-transporting unit to construct bipolar host materials <i>o</i>-CzPyPz, <i>m</i>-CzPyPz, and <i>p</i>-CzPyPz for application in phosphorescent organic light-emitting diodes (PhOLEDs). By varying the ortho-, meta-, or para-linking mode between the n-type 3-(1<i>H</i>-pyrazol-1-yl)­pyridine and the p-type carbazole on phenylene bridge, the optoelectronic parameters are tuned to large extent. The highly twisted <i>o</i>-CzPyPz has high triplet energy of 2.95 eV, while the isomer <i>p</i>-CzPyPz with more coplanar conformation has smaller triplet energy of 2.67 eV. The <i>m</i>-CzPyPz-hosted blue PhOLED exhibits a peak current efficiency of 49.1 cd A^–1 (corresponding to an external quantum efficiency of 24.5%) and low-efficiency roll-off, while the <i>p</i>-CzPyPz-hosted green PhOLEDs turns on at 2.8 V and exhibits high efficiencies of 91.8 cd A^–1 (96.1 lm W^–1 and 27.3%). Furthermore, two-emitting-layer white OLEDs are fabricated with <i>m</i>-CzPyPz or <i>p</i>-CzPyPz as common hosts for both blue and orange phosphors, which realize high efficiencies of 57.8 cd A^–1 (45.4 lm W^–1 and 23.6%) and 60.7 cd A^–1 (38.1 lm W^–1 and 23.1%). The optimization of host structure for good matching of host and dopant and finally for the ideal performance is discussed

Cyanopyridine Based Bipolar Host Materials for Green Electrophosphorescence with Extremely Low Turn-On Voltages and High Power Efficiencies

Low driving voltage and high power efficiency are basic requirements when practical applications of organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) in displays and lighting are considered. Two novel host materials <i>m</i>-PyCNmCP and 3-PyCNmCP incorporating cyanopyridine moiety as electron-transporting unit are developed for use in <i>fac</i>-tris­(2-phenylpyridine)­iridium­(III) (Ir­(ppy)₃) based green phosphorescent OLEDs (PhOLEDs). Extremely low turn-on voltages of 2.01 and 2.27 V are realized, which are even lower than the theoretical limit of the emitted photon energy (<i>hv</i>)/electron charge (<i>e</i>) (2.37 V) of Ir­(ppy)₃. High power efficiency of 101.4 lm/W (corresponding to a maximum external quantum efficiency of 18.4%) and 119.3 lm/W (24.7%) are achieved for <i>m</i>-PyCNmCP and 3-PyCNmCP based green PhOLEDs. The excellent EL performance benefits from the ideal parameters of host materials by combining cyano and pyridine to enhance the n-type feature. The energetic favorable alignment of HOMO/LUMO levels of hosts with adjacent layers and the dopant for easy charge injections and direct charge trapping by dopant, their bipolar feature to balance charge transportations, sufficiently high triplet energy and small singlet/triplet energy difference (0.38 and 0.43 eV) combine to be responsible for the extremely low driving voltages and high power efficiencies of the green PhOLEDs