Stable Organic Radicals as Hole Injection Dopants for Efficient Optoelectronics

Precursors of reactive organic radicals have been widely used as n-dopants in electron-transporting materials to improve electron conductivity and enhance electron injection. However, the utilization of organic radicals in hole counterparts has been ignored. In this work, stable organic radicals have been proved for the first time to be efficient dopants to enhance hole injection. From the absorbance spectra and the ultraviolet photoelectron spectra, we could observe an efficient electron transfer between the organic radical, (4-N-carbazolyl-2,6-dichlorophenyl)bis(2,4,6-trichlorophenyl)methyl (TTM-1Cz), and the widely used hole injection material, 1,4,5,8,9,11-hexaazatriphenylene hexacarbonitrile (HAT-CN). When the unpaired electron of TTM-1Cz is transferred to HAT-CN, it would be oxidized to a TTM-1Cz cation with a newly formed lowest unoccupied molecular orbital which is quite close to the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) of the hole-transporting material (HTM). In this way, the TTM-1Cz cation would promote the electron extraction from the HOMO of the HTM and improve hole injection. Using TTM-1Cz-doped HAT-CN as the hole injection layer, efficient organic light-emitting diodes with extremely low voltages can be attained.