Phosphine-Oxide-Containing Bipolar Host Material for Blue Electrophosphorescent Devices

We report highly efficient blue electrophosphorescent organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) incorporating a bipolar host, 2,7-bis(diphenylphosphine oxide)-9-(9-phenylcarbazol-3-yl)-9-phenylfluorene (PCF), doped with iridium(III) bis[(4,6-difluorophenyl)pyridinato-N,C2′]picolinate (FIrpic). PCF, which contains diphenylphosphine oxide groups appended onto a carbazole/fluorene hybrid, displays both electron- and hole-transporting characteristics, resulting in a low turn-on voltage (2.6 V) and greatly improved power efficiencies. In addition, the sterically hindered structure of PCF provides a compatible environment for the FIrpic dopant, alleviating concentration quenching of the phosphor at high doping levels. The device doped with 28 wt % FIrpic exhibited maximum EL efficiencies of 30.8 cd/A and 26.2 lm/W (at 121 cd/m2). Even at a high brightness of 1000 cd/m2, the efficiencies remained high (26.9 cd/A and 19.6 lm/W).