Synthesis and physical properties of meta-terphenyloxadiazole derivatives and their application as electron transporting materials for blue phosphorescent and fluorescent devices

Abstract

Two m-terphenyloxadiazole-based electron transporting materials, bis(2-tert-butyl-1,3,4-oxadiazole-5-diyl)-3,3′-m-terphenyl (tOXD-mTP) and bis(2-(4-tert-butylphenyl)-1,3,4-oxadiazole-5-diyl)-3,3′-m-terphenyl (tpOXD-mTP) were synthesized and characterized. These two molecules contained two oxadiazolyl groups and a m-terphenyl linkage as the core structure achieving high triplet energy gaps (E_T) of 2.83 and 2.90 eV, respectively. The application of tOXD-mTP and tpOXD-mTP as the electron transporting materials (ETM) in bis(4′,6′-difluorophenylpyridinato)-iridium(III) picolinate (FIrpic)-based blue phosphorescent light-emitting devices effectively confines the triplet exciton in the emitting layers. One of the electroluminescent (EL) devices using FIrpic as the dopant showed an excellent current efficiency of 43.3 cd A⁻¹ and an external quantum efficiency (EQE) of 23.0% with CIE (Commission International de l'Eclairage) coordinates of (0.13, 0.29). The bis(4′,6′-difluorophenylpyridinato)-iridium(III) tetra(1-pyrazolyl)borate (FIr6)-based deeper blue EL device exhibited a high current efficiency of 42.5 cd A⁻¹ and external quantum efficiency of 25.0% with CIE coordinates of (0.14, 0.23). These two tOXD-mTP and tpOXD-mTP based devices show device efficiencies two to three times higher than that based on the well-known electron transporting material 1,3-bis[(4-tertbutylphenyl)-1,3,4-oxadiazolyl]phenylene (OXD-7).