Zeng
Xu
a,
Jiabao
Gu
a,
Jian
Huang
a,
Chengwei
Lin
a,
Yuanzhao
Li
a,
Dezhi
Yang
a,
Xianfeng
Qiao
a,
Anjun
Qin
a,
Zujin
Zhao
a,
Ben Zhong
Tang
*ab and
Dongge
Ma
*a
aCenter for Aggregation-Induced Emission, Institute of Polymer Optoelectronic Materials and Devices, State Key Laboratory of Luminescent Materials and Devices, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510640, China. E-mail: msdgma@scut.edu.cn
bDepartment of Chemistry, Hong Kong Branch of Chinese National Engineering Research Center for Tissue Restoration and Reconstruction, The Hong Kong University of Science & Technology, Clear Water Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China. E-mail: tangbenz@ust.hk
First published on 1st October 2019
Generally, hybrid white organic light-emitting diodes (WOLEDs) are constructed with blue fluorophores and yellow or green/red phosphors, and the fluorophores and phosphors used have to be doped into proper hosts to avoid the exciton quenching caused by molecular aggregation, which brings difficulties in device structure design and fabrication. In this paper, we fabricated high efficiency/low efficiency roll-off/high CRI hybrid WOLEDs based on aggregation-induced emission (AIE) luminogens (AIEgens) with non-doping features as the fluorophore emitters. The resulting WOLEDs were constructed by two AIEgens that emit blue and green light, respectively, and a doped red phosphor, greatly simplifying the device structure. Encouragingly, the hybrid WOLEDs simultaneously achieved high efficiency (PEmax = 50.5 lm W−1, EQEmax = 20.5%), low efficiency roll-off (PE1000nit = 32.9 lm W−1, EQE1000nit = 18.9%), and high CRI (≥90). Our results indicate that AIEgens are promising material systems for manufacturing high-performance white OLEDs with a simple device structure.
Aggregation-induced emission (AIE) luminogens (AIEgens) exhibit superior solid emission that can efficiently close the exciton quenching channels in non-doped film states.15–18 Some recent reports have demonstrated that OLEDs based on non-doped AIEgens exhibit the properties of high efficiency and low roll-off.19–24 In order to further improve the efficiency of OLEDs based on AIEgens, some new AIE materials have been synthesized by combining the concepts of thermal active delayed fluorescence (TADF), hybrid local charge transfer (HLCT), and triplet–triplet annihilation (TTA) that utilizes triplets to achieve high efficiency fluorescence emission.21,25–27 For example, the aggregation-induced delayed fluorescence (AIDF) materials, which were first developed by Yasuda, exhibited high efficiency and low roll-off in non-doped OLEDs.28 Later a series of green and yellow AIDF materials that realize high external quantum efficiencies (EQEs) above 20% with very low roll-off of about 10% at a luminance of 5000 cd m−2 were reported in non-doped OLEDs.29,30
In this work, we used non-doped AIEgens as the blue and green emitting layers and a red phosphor doped TCTA host as the red emitting layer to construct three-color hybrid WOLEDs. Impressively, the fabricated WOLEDs simultaneously achieved a high power efficiency (PE) and EQE of 50.5 lm W−1 and 20.5%, a low efficiency roll-off with PE1000nit and EQE1000nit of 32.9 lm W−1 and 18.9%, and a high CRI above 90. Furthermore, the color correlated temperature (CCT) can be easily adjusted through simply changing the EML thickness to meet the needs of different lighting applications.
Fig. 1a shows the configuration of device W1 without a TCTA interlayer between TPB-AC and CP-BP-PXZ, which is ITO/HAT-CN (5 nm)/TAPC (50 nm)/TCTA (5 nm)/TCTA: 3 wt% Ir(dmppr-mp)2(divm) (8 nm)/CP-BP-PXZ (8 nm)/TPB-AC (10 nm)/TmPyPB (40 nm)/LiF (1 nm)/Al (120 nm). As shown in Fig. 2c, Table 1 and Fig. S2 (ESI†), device W1 exhibits maximum forward-viewing CE (current efficiency), PE (power efficiency), and EQE (external quantum efficiency) of 19.8 cd A−1, 19.7 lm W−1, and 12.0%, respectively. At a luminance of 1000 cd m−2, the efficiencies remain at 19.8 cd A−1, 17.7 lm W−1, and 11.5%, respectively. The efficiency roll-offs of PE and EQE achieve small values of 10.2% and 4.2%, respectively. Moreover, device W1 realizes a high color rendering index (CRI) of 87 at a luminance of 1000 cd m−2 with Commission Internationale de I’Eclairage (CIE) coordinates of (0.54, 0.44), indicating the validity of AIEgens as emitters in the fabrication of high efficiency and low efficiency roll-off hybrid WOLEDs. To further enhance the efficiencies, we fabricated device W2 by inserting a TCTA interlayer between TPB-AC and CP-BP-PXZ. The detailed configuration is ITO/HAT-CN (5 nm)/TAPC (50 nm)/TCTA (5 nm)/TCTA: 3 wt% Ir(dmppr-mp)2(divm) (8 nm)/CP-BP-PXZ (7 nm)/TCTA (2 nm)/TPB-AC (10 nm)/TmPyPB (40 nm)/LiF (1 nm)/Al (120 nm). As shown in Fig. 2d–f, device W2 exhibits better EL performance than device W1. The turn-on voltage is 2.4 V (Fig. 2e) and the maximum forward-viewing CE, PE and EQE are 40.6 cd m−2, 50.5 lm W−1, and 20.5%, respectively (Fig. 2f, Table 1 and Fig. S3 (ESI†)). Furthermore, at a luminance of 1000 cd m−2, the efficiencies remain at 38.7 cd m−2, 32.9 lm W−1, and 18.9%, respectively, with relatively low CE, PE, and EQE roll-offs of 4.7, 34.9, and 7.8%, respectively. Especially, the spectrum is very stable and shows a small CIE coordinate variation of (0.02, 0.02) from a luminance of 1000 cd m−2 (0.52, 0.45) to 10000 cd m−2 (0.50, 0.43). Importantly, the color rendering index (CRI) of device W2 reaches 90 at a luminance of 1000 cd m−2, which is an excellent performance for healthy lighting. Obviously, the TCTA interlayer plays a very important role in improving the EL performance of device W2. Moreover, we realized color-tunable hybrid WOLEDs (device W3) by changing the thicknesses of the emitting layers and the interlayer. The configuration of device W3 is ITO/HAT-CN (5 nm)/TAPC (50 nm)/TCTA (5 nm)/TCTA: 3 wt% Ir(dmppr-mp)2(divm) (5 nm)/CP-BP-PXZ (10 nm)/TCTA (3 nm)/TPB-AC (10 nm)/TmPyPB (40 nm)/LiF (1 nm)/Al (120 nm). As shown in Fig. 2i, Table 1 and Fig. S4 (ESI†), device W3 shows maximum forward-viewing CE, PE, and EQE of 42.1 cd A−1, 51.0 lm W−1, and 17.8%, respectively, and they remain at 38.8 cd A−1, 31.0 lm W−1, and 16.4% at a luminance of 1000 cd m−2, respectively. Different from device W2, device W3 exhibits changeable CIE coordinate spectra from (0.46, 0.49) at 1076 cd m−2 to (0.35, 0.33) at 24625 cd m−2. The maximum CRI reaches 97 at a luminance of 7810 cd m−2 and CIE coordinates of (0.41, 0.42), and can also reach 91 at the pure white emission with CIE coordinates of (0.35, 0.33). This is a very useful feature in practical lighting applications.
Device | V on (V) | L max (cd m−2) | CEc (cd A−1) | PEc (lm W−1) | EQEc (%) | CRId | CIEe (x, y) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
a V on is the turn-on voltage, which is measured at 1 cd m−2. b L max is the maximum luminance. c Order of measured value: maximum, then values at 1000 cd m−2. d Color rendering index (CRI) is measured at 1000 cd m−2, then the maximum. e Commission Internationale de I’Eclairage (CIE) coordinates are measured at 1000 cd m−2. | |||||||
W1 | 2.4 | 44797 | 19.8/19.8 | 19.7/17.7 | 12.0/11.5 | 87, 89 | (0.54, 0.44) |
W2 | 2.4 | 26486 | 40.6/38.7 | 50.5/32.9 | 20.5/18.9 | 90, 93 | (0.52, 0.45) |
W3 | 2.6 | 33983 | 42.1/38.8 | 51.0/31.0 | 17.8/16.4 | 77, 97 | (0.49, 0.46) |
To gain insight into the mechanisms of devices W1, W2, and W3, we first analyzed the energy levels of the singlet and triplet states of CP-BP-PXZ and TPB-AC. As shown in Fig. 3a and b, TPB-AC has a high S1 of 2.77 eV and a relatively low T1 of 2.48 eV. However, CP-BP-PXZ shows a small ΔEST owing to its AIDF characteristic, which causes a S1 of 2.34 eV and a high T1 of 2.32 eV. As we can see, the small energy gap of 0.16 eV between T1,G and T1,B may cause a DET process from T1,G to T1,B, leading to the exciton quenching. This should be the major reason for device W1 showing low efficiency. As is known, FRET processes have a radius of about 10 nm while DET processes are less than 3 nm. Thus, the FRET process is rarely influenced if we introduce a thin interlayer to block the DET process. Therefore, in devices W2 and W3, the introduction of the TCTA interlayer largely decreases the unfavorable DET processes between CP-BP-PXZ and TPB-AC, thus eliminating the non-radiative channels. Moreover, the TCTA interlayer also plays a regulative function of exciton distribution. As shown in Fig. 3c and d, the thicker TCTA interlayer efficiently blocks electrons and excitons in the TPB-AC blue layer, resulting in more blue emission for device W3 than device W2 (Fig. 2d and g).
Furthermore, we measured the absorption spectra of the Ir(dmppr-mp)2(divm) and CP-BP-PXZ films and the PL spectra of the CP-BP-PXZ and TPB-AC films. As shown in Fig. 4b, there is a large overlap between the absorption spectra of Ir(dmppr-mp)2(divm) and the PL spectra of CP-BP-PXZ and TPB-AC, and between CP-BP-PXZ and TPB-AC, indicating the efficient energy transfer from CP-BP-PXZ and TPB-AC to Ir(dmppr-mp)2(divm) and from TBP-AC to CP-BP-PXZ. Then, we manufactured four films to further investigate the energy transfer processes. The structures of films 1–4 are shown in Fig. 4a, and the PL of films 1–4 are shown in Fig. S6 (ESI†). As shown in Fig. 4c, the CP-BP-PXZ emission in film 1 exhibits a promoted lifetime of 24.6 ns and a delayed lifetime of 1641 ns. However, after adding an Ir(dmppr-mp)2(divm) doped layer adjacent to the CP-BP-PXZ (film 2), the lifetimes of the CP-BP-PXZ emission in film 2 are reduced to 21.9 ns and 1331 ns, respectively. It is obvious that the emissions of the promoted and delayed fluorescence from CP-BP-PXZ are quenched by Ir(dmppr-mp)2(divm), indicating the efficient Förster (FRET) and Dexter (DET) energy transfer processes from CP-BP-PXZ to Ir(dmppr-mp)2(divm). As shown in Fig. 4d, the TPB-AC emission in film 3 exhibits a lifetime of 1.62 ns. However, after evaporating an additional CP-BP-PXZ layer to fabricate film 4 with CP-BP-PXZ/TCTA/TPB-AC, the lifetime of the TPB-AC emission is reduced to 0.78 ns. This means that an efficient energy transfer from TPB-AC to CP-BP-PXZ occurs, and the FRET process is mainly due to the existence of the 2 nm thick TCTA interlayer.
To gain insight into the charge carrier trapping processes in white OLEDs, we fabricated hole-only devices with the configuration ITO/HAT-CN (5 nm)/TAPC (50 nm)/TCTA (5 nm)/TCTA: x wt% Ir(dmppr-mp)2(divm) (20 nm)/TCTA (5 nm)/TAPC (50 nm)/HAT-CN (5 nm)/Al (120 nm), and electron-only devices with the configuration ITO/LiF (1 nm)/TmPyPB (40 nm)/TCTA: x wt% Ir(dmppr-mp)2(divm) (20 nm)/TmPyPB (40 nm)/LiF (1 nm)/Al (120 nm). Here, x = 0 for devices H1 and E1, x = 1 for devices H2 and E2, x = 2 for devices H3 and E3, and x = 3 for devices H4 and E4. As shown in Fig. 5a and b, with the increase of the red phosphor doping concentration, the electron and hole currents are obviously reduced, indicating the significant trapping effects of Ir(dmppr-mp)2(divm) on holes and electrons. Moreover, we manufactured devices C1–C3 with the configuration of ITO/HAT-CN (5 nm)/TAPC (50 nm)/TCTA (5 nm)/TCTA: y wt% Ir(dmppr-mp)2(divm) (8 nm)/CP-BP-PXZ (7 nm)/TCTA (2 nm)/TPB-AC (10 nm)/TmPyPB (40 nm)/LiF (1 nm)/Al (120 nm), similar to the structure of white device W2, where y = 0 for device C1, y = 1 for device C2, and y = 2 for device C3. The EL spectra of devices C1–C3, and W2 are shown in Fig. S5 (ESI†). As we can see, the red emission grows with increasing Ir(dmppr-mp)2(divm) doping concentration. Then, we also measured the capacitance–voltage characteristics of devices C1, C2, C3, and W2. As shown in Fig. 5c, the capacitance of the devices raises when increasing the doping concentration of Ir(dmppr-mp)2(divm) in TCTA. These results further prove that the emission of red phosphor in white devices W2 and W3 also includes charge carrier trapping processes.
Based on the results in Fig. 3–5, the working mechanisms of devices W1, W2, and W3 are summarized in Fig. 6. It is concluded from the EL spectra of devices W1, W2, and W3 that the exciton recombination zone should mainly be in the green EML that extends to a certain region of the red and blue EMLs. Thus, in device W1 without a TCTA interlayer, as shown in Fig. 6a, the direct exciton recombination in the green and blue EMLs leads to the green and blue emissions, respectively, and the partial charge carrier trapping on the red phosphor results in the red emission, and at the same time the exciton energies on the green phosphor and the blue fluorophore are also transferred to the red phosphor for the red emission. Obviously, because the exciton energies in the blue fluorophore are easily transferred to the CP-BP-PXZ and Ir(dmppr-mp)2(divm), we see little blue emission in device W1. However, for the case of devices W2 and W3 with the TCTA interlayer, as shown in Fig. 6b, the exciton energy transfer on the blue fluorophore is efficiently blocked by the TCTA interlayer, leading to more blue emission. It can be seen that the introduction of the TCTA interlayer also largely eliminates the exciton quenching processes in devices W2 and W3, resulting in higher efficiency. Importantly, the TCTA interlayer adjusts the exciton distribution in the EMLs very well, thus white OLEDs with different EL performances can be obtained by simply changing the EML thickness.
Footnote |
† Electronic supplementary information (ESI) available. See DOI: 10.1039/c9qm00539k |
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