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π-Stacked host materials based on spirofluorene scaffolds for warm white OLEDs achieving 94.7 lm W−1 at 1,000 cd m−2

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Abstract

Power efficiency (PE) at high brightness is considered as the rigorous standard of high-quality white organic light-emitting diodes (WOLEDs), for which the host material plays a significant role in energy conservation for practical lighting applications. Herein, PE is successfully enhanced to a new level through the method of π-stacked host molecular with spirofluorene scaffold. We design host materials by confining two donor units in a very short distance to enlarge the π-electron spatial delocalization for facilitating the hole hopping process and engaging a rigid donor as the space-lock to suppress the quenching effect as well as induce host bipolar property. Based on this unique molecular design, the red, green, and blue (RGB) monochromic organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) demonstrate high external quantum efficiencies (EQEs) of 28.4%, 26.0%, and 31.2% with ultralow roll-off, respectively. More encouragingly, the warm WOLEDs achieve record-high current efficiency (CE) of 109.5 cd A−1, PE of 109.1 lm W−1, and EQE of 32.9%. Even under operating brightness of 1,000 cd m−2, the devices can still realize 94.7 lm W−1 of PE, which represents the highest applicable PE value in the reported WOLEDs and for the first time single host based WOLEDs with a performance exceeding that of a conventional fluorescent tube (70 lm W−1) without any light extraction technique.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51873139, 61961160731, 62175171, 22175124), the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province of China (BK20220057), and the Suzhou Science and Technology Plan Project (SYG202010). This work was also supported by Suzhou Key Laboratory of Functional Nano & Soft Materials, Collaborative Innovation Center of Suzhou Nano Science & Technology, the 111 Project, Joint International Research Laboratory of Carbon-Based Functional Materials and Devices.

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  1. These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Carbon-Based Functional Materials & Devices, Soochow University, Suzhou, 215123, China

    Yuan-Lan Zhang, Sheng-Yi Yang, Zi-Qi Feng, Yang-Kun Qu, Liang-Sheng Liao & Zuo-Quan Jiang

  2. Institute of Functional Nano & Soft Materials (FUNSOM), Soochow University, Suzhou, 215123, China

    Yuan-Lan Zhang, Sheng-Yi Yang, Zi-Qi Feng, Yang-Kun Qu, Dong-Ying Zhou, Liang-Sheng Liao & Zuo-Quan Jiang

  3. Macau Institute of Materials Science and Engineering, Macau University of Science and Technology, Macao, 999078, China

    Liang-Sheng Liao

  4. Hubei Collaborative Innovation Center for Advanced Organic Chemical Materials, Hubei Key Lab on Organic and Polymeric Optoelectronic Materials, Department of Chemistry, Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430072, China

    Cheng Zhong

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  1. Yuan-Lan Zhang
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Correspondence to Liang-Sheng Liao or Zuo-Quan Jiang.

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Supporting information The supporting information is available online at http://chem.scichina.com and http://link.springer.com/journal/11426. The supporting materials are published as submitted, without typesetting or editing. The responsibility for scientific accuracy and content remains entirely with the authors.

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Zhang, YL., Yang, SY., Feng, ZQ. et al. π-Stacked host materials based on spirofluorene scaffolds for warm white OLEDs achieving 94.7 lm W−1 at 1,000 cd m−2. Sci. China Chem. 65, 2219–2230 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11426-022-1382-5

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