Blue Fluorescence and Bipolar Transport Materials Based on Anthracene and Their Application in OLEDs

The phenomenon of organic electroluminescence (EL) was first discovered from studies on anthracene crystals in the 1960s. Since then, its derivatives have been studied extensively in applications such as organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) and organic thin-film transistors because of their excellent EL, transport, and good electrochemical properties. A blue fluorescence emitter based on anthracene is also important in constructing hybrid tandem white OLEDs for lighting applications. This article provides a review about the development of blue host OLED materials based on molecules designed and derived from the core structure of anthracene and their application as bipolar charge-carrier transport materials in OLEDs. The recent development of efficient, stable, blue-doped p-i-n OLEDs with simplified device architecture based on the single common host 2-methyl-9,10-di(2-napthyl)anthracene, with its stable thin-film morphology, large band gap energy, high fluorescence quantum yield, and ambipolar charge-carrier transport properties, is also highlighted.