Thermally and electrochemically stable amorphous hole-transporting materials based on carbazole dendrimers for electroluminescent devices

Abstract Amorphous hole-transporting carbazole dendrimers, 1,4-bis[3,6-di(carbazol-9-yl)carbazol-9-yl]-2,6-di(2-ethylhexyloxy)benzene (G2CB) and 1,4-bis[3,6-di(carbazol-9-yl)carbazol-9-yl]-9-(2-ethylhexyl)carbazole (G2CC), were synthesized by a divergent approach involving bromination and Ullmann coupling reactions. Compounds G2CB and G2CC showed high thermal stability (Tg = 206 to 245 °C) and excellent electrochemical reversibility. Double-layer organic light-emitting diodes were fabricated by using G2CB and G2CC as hole-transporting layers (HTLs) and tris(8-quinolinato)aluminum (Alq3) as light-emissive layer with the device configuration of indium tin oxide/HTL/Alq3/LiF:Al. Both devices exhibited bright green emission from Alq3. The device using G2CC as HTL has the best performance with a maximum brightness of 8900 cd/m2 at 14 V and a low turn-on voltage of 3.5 V.