Judicious Design of Pyridine-Based Hosts for Stable, Efficient, and Low-Driving Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescence Organic Light-Emitting Diodes

Although thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) based organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) continue to achieve high efficiencies, their device stability still does not necessarily meet industrial standards. To improve device stability, careful design of a stable host material is crucial. Herein, with reference to a common p-type host material, 3,3 '-di(9H-carbazol-9-yl)-1,1 '-biphenyl (mCBP), three novel host materials based on a pyridine unit, mCBP-1N, CzPyPhCz, and CzPyBF, are systematically designed to improve the stabilities efficiently. The green and blue TADF OLEDs are fabricated with these three new hosts. The maximum external quantum efficiencies (EQEmaxs) of green OLEDs are 20.3 % and 14.0% for CzPyBF and mCBP hosts, respectively. Further, high EQEs of 19.2% and 12.9% are maintained even at 1000 cd m-2. Most importantly, the device lifetime of the CzPyBF host can achieve LT95 of 62.7 h, which is 2.5 times longer than that of mCBP. Also, lower turn-on voltages are achieved by using CzPyPhCz in blue and green devices. With host engineering, the TADF OLEDs are simultaneously improved with lower turn-on voltages, higher EQEs, and longer device lifetimes. Three novel host materials based on a pyridine unit, mCBP-1N, CzPyPhCz, and CzPyBF, are systematically designed and synthesized. With host engineering, thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) are simultaneously improved with lower turn-on voltages, higher external quantum efficiencies, and longer device lifetimes. image