Alternative p-doped hole transport material for low operating voltage and high efficiency organic light-emitting diodes

Abstract

We investigate the properties of N,N'-[(Diphenyl-N,N'-bis) 9,9,-dimethyl-fluoren-2-yl]-benzidine (BF-DPB) as hole transport material (HTL) in organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) and compare BF-DPB to the commonly used HTLs N,N,N',N'-tetrakis(4-methoxyphenyl)-benzidine (MeO-TPD), 2,2',7,7'-tetrakis(N,N'-di-p-methylphenylamino)-9,9'-spirobifluorene (Spiro-TTB), and N, N'-di(naphtalene-1-yl)-N,N'-diphenylbenzidine (NPB). The influence of 2,2'-(perfluoronaphthalene-2,6-diylidene)dimalononitrile (F6-TCNNQ p-dopant) concentration in BF-DPB on the operation voltage and efficiency of red and green phosphorescent OLEDs is studied; best results are achieved at 4 wt. % doping. Without any light extraction structure, BF-DPB based red (green) OLEDs achieve a luminous efficacy of 35.1 lm/W (74.0 lm/W) at 1000 cd/m(2) and reach a very high brightness of 10 000 cd/m(2) at a very low voltage of 3.2 V (3.1 V). We attribute this exceptionally low driving voltage to the high ionization potential of BF-DPB which enables more efficient hole injection from BF-DPB to the adjacent electron blocking layer. The high efficiency and low driving voltage lead to a significantly lower luminous efficacy roll-off compared to the other compounds and render BF-DPB an excellent HTL material for highly efficient OLEDs.