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Novel hyperbranched polymers as host materials for green thermally activated delayed fluorescence OLEDs

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Abstract

A series of novel hyperbranched polymers (HBPs) consisting of a 2,7-subsituted 9-(heptadecan-9-yl)-9H-carbazole unit (A2+A2’) and a tetra-substituted green thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) dye of 2,3,5,6-tetra(9H-carbazol-9-yl)-4-pyridinecarbonitrile (4CzCNPy, B4) have been synthesized via Suzuki cross-coupling reaction following an “A2+A2’+B4” method. The polymers are named according to the polymerization ratio of 4CzCNPy monomer (5 mol%, 10 mol% and 15 mol% for HBPs of P2−P4 respectively, and 0 mol% for the control linear polymer P1). Their thermal, optoelectronic and electrochemical properties have been characterized by a combination of techniques. All the polymers exhibit high thermal stability with the decomposition temperatures (T d) above 400 °C and glass transition temperatures (T g) up to 98 °C. Unfortunately, the incorporation of TADF moiety into these HBP materials induced non-TADF characteristics. However, when the HBPs functionalized as the host for our previously developed 4CzCNPy TADF dopant in solution processed devices, maximum external quantum efficiency of 5.7% and current efficiency of 17.9 cd/A have been achieved in P3-based device, which is significantly higher than those of 1.5% and 4.2 cd/A for the linear polymer P1.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the Synergetic Innovation Center for Organic Electronics and Information Displays

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory for Flexible Electronics & Institute of Advanced Materials (IAM), Jiangsu National Synergistic Innovation Center for Advanced Materials, Nanjing Tech University, Nanjing, 211816, China

    Ling-yun Zhao, Ya-nan Liu, Shi-fan Wang, You-tian Tao  (陶友田), Fang-fang Wang & Wei Huang  (黄维)

  2. School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Xuzhou Institute of Technology, Xuzhou, 221111, China

    Shi-fan Wang

  3. Key Laboratory for Organic Electronics and Information Displays and Institute of Advanced Materials, Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Nanjing, 210046, China

    Xin-wen Zhang  (张新稳) & Wei Huang  (黄维)

Authors
  1. Ling-yun Zhao
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  2. Ya-nan Liu
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  3. Shi-fan Wang
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  4. You-tian Tao  (陶友田)
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  5. Fang-fang Wang
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  6. Xin-wen Zhang  (张新稳)
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  7. Wei Huang  (黄维)
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to You-tian Tao  (陶友田), Xin-wen Zhang  (张新稳) or Wei Huang  (黄维).

Additional information

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 21304047), Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (No. BK2016042) and Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education (No. 20133221120015).

These authors contributed equally to this work.

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Zhao, Ly., Liu, Yn., Wang, Sf. et al. Novel hyperbranched polymers as host materials for green thermally activated delayed fluorescence OLEDs. Chin J Polym Sci 35, 490–502 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10118-017-1881-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10118-017-1881-1

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