Phenanthroimidazole-derivative semiconductors as functional layer in high performance OLEDs

Four phenanthroimidazole derivatives (a: 1,2-diphenyl-1H-phenanthro[9,10-d]imidazole; b: 2-phenyl-1-p-tolyl-1H-phenanthro[9,10-d]imidazole; c: 1-phenyl-2-p-tolyl-1H-phenanthro[9,10-d]imidazole; d: 1,2-di-p-tolyl-1H-phenanthro[9,10-d]imidazole) were synthesized and their single crystal structures, photophysical, electrochemical and mobility properties were carefully studied. Taking advantage of the thermal stability and the hole transporting (HT) ability, the highly efficient Alq3-based organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) have been achieved by employing the compounds a–d as a functional layer between NPB (4,4-bis(N-(1-naphthyl)-N-phenylamino)biphenyl) and Alq3 (tris(8-hydroxyquinoline)aluminium) layers. For the device of [ITO/NPB/d/Alq3/LiF/Al], a maximum luminous efficiency (LE) of 8.1 cd A−1 was obtained with a maximum brightness of 65 130 cd m−2, which exhibited much higher efficiency compared to the device with structure of [ITO/NPB/Alq3/LiF/Al]. The results demonstrated not only an alternative idea to design novel HT materials, but also a convenient way to improve the performance of the NPB/Alq3-based devices by introduction of a suitable organic buffer layer.