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J. Yu et al. / Organic Electronics 38 (2016) 301e306
S
phenylfluorene (POAPF), and the corresponding blue mono-
chromatic OLEDs own a rather low turn-on voltage of 2.5 V due to
the balance of carriers in the EML [24]. Zheng et al. applied a series
of new synthesis host materials to blue monochromatic OLEDs, and
obtained a low voltage of 2.6 V and a gentle efficiency roll-off. The
device using 9,9-bis(9-methylcarbazol-3-yl)-4,5-diazafluorene
(MCAF) as the host has a maximum current efficiency (CE) of
32.2 cd/A and a maximum power efficiency (PE) of 31.3 lm/W, and
still keep a high CE of 27.6 cd/A and a high PE of 14.5 lm/W at the
brightness of 10000 cd/m2 [29]. Furthermore, Son et al. achieved
bipolar host materials 4-(N-a-carbolinyl)-40,4''-(N-carbazolyl) tri-
phenylamine (ADCTA), 4,40-di(N-a-carbolinyl)-4''-(N-carbazolyl)
triphenylamine (DACTA) and 4,40,4''-(N-acarbolinyl) triphenyl-
amine (TATA) with the nature of small singlet-triplet energy gap
S
S
a
b
OH
B
B
Br
OH
OH
A
N
HO
B
C
N
c
Cl
Cl
S
S
N
N
Scheme 1. Synthetic routes to DBTPhPm. (a) toluene, H2O, K2CO3, PdCl2 (PPh3)2; (b)
THF, -78 ꢂC, n-BuLi, B(OPr)3; (c) toluene, H2O, K2CO3, PdCl2(PPh3)2.
(DES-T: the difference between singlet and triplet energy levels) so
that the dopant may avoid being deep trap sites due to the small
singlet to triplet splitting energy (0.4 eV) [30,31].
stirred to be degassed. Then 0.5 g PdCl2(PPh3)2 was added in this
mixture and the atmosphere was replaced with N2. The mixture
was stirred while reaction container was heated. After heating,
water was added to the mixture, and the mixture was filtered to
give residue. The obtained solid was washed with dichloromethane
and methol. The obtained solid was recrystallized from toluene to
give 25 g white solid (yield 63%). 1H NMR(CDCl3, 400 MHz):
7.41e7.51 (m, 4H), 7.58e7.62 (m, 4H), 7.68e7.79 (m, 4H), 8.73 (dt,
2H), 8.18e8.27 (m, 7H), 8.54 (t, 2H), 9.39 (d, 1H). MODI-TOF: 596.76.
Anal. calcd for C40H24N2S2 (%): C 80.51, H 4.05, N 4.69, S 10.75;
Found: C 80.50, H 4.05, N 4.71, S 10.74.
In this paper, a bipolar host material 4,6-Bis[3-(dibenzothio-
phen-2-yl)phenyl] pyrimidine (DBTPhPm) is reported and a series
of low-voltage, highly efficient, and low efficiency roll-off
DBTPhPm-based PHOLEDs are designed. Iridium (III) Bis [1- (3,5-
dimethylphenyl)- 7- methylisoquinoline] (acetylacetone) [Ir(pmi-
q)2(acac)], tris(2-phenylpyridine) iridium [Ir(ppy)3], [(bis[2-(4,6-
difluorophenyl) pyridyl-N,C2'] iridium (III) [Firpic], Iridium(III)bis-
(2-methyldibenzo- [f,h] quinoxaline) (acetylacetonate) [Ir(MD-
Q)2(acac)] and Iridium(III) bis(4-phenylthieno [3,2-c] pyridinato-
0
N,C2 ) acetylacetonate [PO-01] are used as the red, green, blue, or-
ange, and yellow dopants. For comparison, device using (4,40-N,N'-
dicarbazole) biphenyl (CBP), POAPF and (3,3'-bicarbazole) phenyl
(BCZph) [32] as host were also fabricated. The results indicated that
DBTPhPm is an efficient host for most common phosphorescent
dopants.
DBTPhPm has a simple molecular structure that having two
dibenzothiophene and one pyrimidine moiety. Pyrimidine core
structure was designed as the electron transport type core struc-
ture with high triplet energy and high rigidity for high glass tran-
sition temperature (Tg ¼ 268.9 ꢂC). The Tg of DBTPhPm is much
higher than that of the CBP(62 ꢂC) [34], POAPF(129 ꢂC) [24] and
BCZph(100 ꢂC) [35]. The high Tg would be benefited to the stability
of the devices. The dibenzothiophene unit withdraws electron due
to S atom with high electronegativity. The ultravioletevisible
(UVevis) absorption, PL emission and low-temperature photo-
luminescence (LTPL) emission spectra of DBTPhPm in CH2Cl2 so-
2. Experimental
UVevisible absorption and photoluminescence (PL) studies at
room temperature were carried out using U3010 spectrometer
(Hitachi, Japan) and F-7000 FL spectrophotometer, respectively. The
phosphorescence spectrum was recorded from the delayed emis-
sion of DBTPhPm at 77 K. The cyclic voltammogram (CV) experi-
ments were performed using a BAS 100 W instrument at room
temperature in CH2Cl2 solutions at a scan rate of 100 mV/s. All
devices were fabricated on glasses substrates covered by con-
ducting indium tin oxide (ITO). The substrates were cleaned in
Decon 90 and deionized water, dried in the oven and then treated
in plasma for about 5 min. Finally organic layers and cathode ma-
terials were sequentially deposited on the substrates without
breaking vacuum (~5.0 ꢀ 10ꢁ4 Pa). A shadow mask was used to
define the cathode and to make four 10 mm2 devices on each
substrate. Current-Voltage-Luminance (IeV-L) characteristics of
unpackaged devices were measured with a Keithley 2400 Source
Meter and a Minolta Luminance Meter LS-110. The spectra of the
devices were measured with Ocean Optics Maya 2000-PRO
spectrometer.
lution (1
ꢀ
10ꢁ5 M) are measured, and Fig. 1 shows the
characteristics with an inset figure of the chemical structure of
DBTPhPm. Absorption peaks at 336 nm can be attributed to
p
-
p
p
*
*
transitions of the dibenzothiophene chromoph and * and n-
p-p
transitions of central arylenes, respectively. The optical energy
band gap (Eg) of DBTPhPm is calculated to be 3.69 eV from the onset
of the absorption spectrum (336 nm) according to the UVevis ab-
sorption curve. The fluorescence emission peak of DBTPhPm is
3. Results and discussion
Scheme 1 depicts the synthetic route and structure of the new
host material DBTPhPm. Dibenzothiophene-2-boronic acid was
purchased from Bepharm Chemical (China). The boronic acid C was
synthesized according to literature [33]. Other reactants or reagents
were used as received.10 g (67 mmol) 4, 6-dichloropyrimidine, 60 g
(20 mmol) 3-(dibenzothiophen-2-yl) phenylboronic acid, 80 g
(70 mmol) K2CO3, 500 ml toluene and 200 ml H2O were put in a 1 L
recovery flask. While the pressure was reduced, the mixture was
Fig. 1. The UVevis absorption, photoluminescence (PL) emission (at RT) and low-
temperature photoluminescence (LTPL) emission (at 77 K) spectra of DBTPhPm in
CH2Cl2 solution (1 ꢀ 10ꢁ5 M).