Exciplex-forming cohost systems with 2,7-dicyanofluorene acceptors for high efficiency red and deep-red OLEDs

Two 2,7-dicyaonfluorene-based molecules 27-DCN and 27 - tDCN are utilized as acceptors (A) to combine with hexaphenylbenzene-centered donors (D) TATT and DDT-HPB for probing the exciplex formation. The photophysical characteristics reveal that the steric hindered 27 -tDCN not only can increase the distance of D and A, resulting in a hypsochromic emission, but also dilute the concentration of triplet excitons to suppress non-radiative process. The 27 - tDCN -based exciplex-forming blends exhibit better photoluminescence quantum yield (PLQY) as compared to those of 27-DCN-based pairs. In consequence, among these D:A blends, the device employing DDT-HPB: 27 - tDCN blend as the emissiom layer (EML) exhibits the best EQE of 3.0% with electroluminescence (EL) λ max of 542 nm. To further utilize the exciton electrically generated in exciplex-forming system, two D–A–D-configurated fluorescence emitter DTPNT and DTPNBT are doped into the DDT-HPB:27-tDCN blend. The nice spectral overlap ensures fast and efficient Förster energy transfer (FRET) process between the exciplex-forming host and the fluorescent quests. The red device adopting DDT-HPB: 27 - tDCN :10 wt% DTPNT as the EML gives EL λ max of 660 nm and maximum external quantum efficiency (EQE max ) of 5.8%, while EL λ max of 685 nm and EQE of 5.0% for the EML of DDT-HPB: 27 - tDCN :10 wt% DTPNBT. This work manifests a potential strategy to achieve high efficiency red and deep red OLED devices by incorporating the highly fluorescent emitters to extract the excitons generated by the exciplex-forming blend with bulky acceptor for suppressing non-radiative process.