Imidazo[1,2-b]pyridazine as Building Blocks for Host Materials for High-Performance Red-Phosphorescent Organic Light-Emitting Devices

A novel electron-transporting unit, imidazo [1,2-b]pyridazine (IP), was first reported for developing host materials. The IP moiety possesses excellent electron-transporting ability and great thermal stability. Using carbazole as p-type units and IP as n-type units, several bipolar host materials, namely, IP6Cz, IP68Cz, IP36Cz, and IP368Cz, were developed through altering the substitution site of the IP core. Among these four materials, 6-site-substituted IP6Cz and 6,8-site-substituted IP68Cz exhibit the best electroluminescence (EL) performance. IP6Cz- and IP68Cz-based red phosphorescent organic light-emitting diodes using Ir(pq)2acac as the emitter exhibit extremely high EL efficiency with the maximum external quantum efficiency (ηext,max) of 26.9 and 25.2% and an insignificant efficiency roll-off. Moreover, IP6Cz- and IP68Cz-based deep-red devices doped by Ir(piq)2acac also show satisfactory EL performance with a ηext,max of 20.5 and 19.9%, respectively. The influence of different substitution sites of the IP core on the photophysical and electrochemical properties was systematically investigated. This study demonstrates that IP could be a first-rate electron-transporting unit for bipolar materials for red-emitting devices.