Robust Spirobifluorene Core Based Hole Transporters with High Mobility for Long-Life Green Phosphorescent Organic Light-Emitting Devices

Using a tailored high triplet energy hole transport layer (HTL) is a suitable way to improve the efficiency and extend the lifetime of organic light-emitting devices (OLEDs), which can use all molecular excitons of singlets and triplets. In this study, dibenzofuran (DBF)-end-capped and spirobifluorene (SBF) core-based HTLs referred as TDBFSBF1 and TDBFSBF2 were effectively developed. TDBFSBF1 exhibited a high glass transition temperature of 178 degrees C and triplet energy of 2.5 eV. Moreover, a high external quantum efficiency of 22.0 %, long operational lifetime at 50 % of the initial luminance of 89,000 h, and low driving voltage at 1000 cd m(-2) of 2.95 V were achieved in green phosphorescent OLEDs using TDBFSBF1. Further, a high-hole mobility mu(h) value of 1.9x10(-3) cm(2) V-1 s(-1) was recorded in TDBFSBF2. A multiscale simulation successfully reproduced the experimental mu(h) values and indicated that the reorganization energy was the primary factor in determining the mobility differences among these SBF core based HTLs.