Solution processable small molecular host materials for blue and white phosphorescence OLEDs

Three new solution processable small molecular host materials based on bis-[3,5-di(9H-carbazol-9-yl)phenyl] structural moiety have been developed for blue phosphorescence (FIrpic dopant) organic light-emitting diodes. Whereas N,N-bis-[3,5-di(9H-carbazol-9-yl)phenyl]methylamine (CzPAMe) has the highest solid state triplet energy gap (E_T) of 2.73 eV, tetrakis-[3,3′, 5,5′-(9H-carbazol-9-yl)]triphenylphosphine oxide (CzPPO) and N,N-bis-[3,5-di(9H-carbazol-9-yl)phenyl]pyrimidin-2-amine (CzPAPm) are two host materials potentially being bipolar for charge transport due to the electron deficient unit of phenylphosphine oxide and pyrimidine, respectively. Due to the insufficient E_T(2.56 eV) of CzPAPm, CzPPO or CzPAMe devices are significantly better than CzPAPm devices with or without 1,3-bis[(4-tert- butylphenyl)-1,3,4-oxadiazolyl]phenylene (OXD-7) co-host. Particularly, having no OXD-7 co-host and no vacuum-thermal-deposited extra electron transporting layer, single-layer devices of CzPPO surpassing CzPAMe devices reach current efficiency as high as 9.32 cd/A (or power efficiency of 4.97 lm/W), which is one of the highest of the kind. Corresponding single-layer white phosphorescence OLEDs are also fabricated with the small molecular host material demonstrated herein.