Development and Utilization of Host Materials for White Phosphorescent Organic Light-Emitting Diodes. Reporting Period - February 1, 2010 - May 31, 2013.

摘要

Our project was primarily focused on the MYPP 2015 goal for white phosphorescent organic devices (PhOLEDs or phosphorescent organic light-emitting diodes) for solid-state lighting with long lifetimes and high efficiencies. Our central activity was to synthesize and evaluate a new class of host materials for blue phosphors in the PhOLEDs, known to be a weak link in the device operating lifetime. The work was a collaborative effort between three groups, one primarily responsible for chemical design and characterization (Chen), one primarily responsible for device development (Tang) and one primarily responsible for mechanistic studies and degradation analysis (Rothberg). The host materials were designed with a novel architecture that chemically links groups with good ability to move electrons with those having good ability to move “holes” (positive charges), the main premise being that we could suppress the instability associated with physical separation and crystallization of the electron conducting and hole conducting materials that might cause the devices to fail. We found that these materials do prevent crystallization and that this will increase device lifetimes but that efficiencies were reduced substantially due to interactions between the materials creating new low energy “charge transfer” states that are non-luminescent. Therefore, while our proposed strategy could in principle improve device lifetimes, we were unable to find a materials combination where the efficiency was not substantially compromised. In the course of our project, we made several important contributions that are peripherally related to the main project goal. First, we were able to prepare the proposed new family of materials and develop synthetic routes to make them efficiently. These types of materials that can transport both electrons and holes may yet have important roles to play in organic device technology. Second we developed an important new method for controlling the deposition profile of material so that arbitrary concentration gradients can be implemented in layers with mixed composition. These concentration profiles are known to increase device efficiency and longevity and we confirmed that experimentally. Third, we investigated a new method for analyzing degradation in devices using mass spectrometry to look for degradation products. We showed that these methods are not simple to interpret unambiguously and need to be used with caution.