Highly efficient blue electrophosphorescent devices with a new series of host materials: polyphenylene-dendronized oxadiazole derivatives.

A new series of oxadiazole derivatives TPO, PPO, MTPO, MPPO, BTPO, and BPPO have been designed and synthesized in high yields by a convenient synthetic procedure. A single crystal structure of TPO exhibited that this polyphenylene-dendronized material has a sterically crowded structure which efficiently prevents π–π stacking and endows it with good thermal stability. The photophysical properties of the materials show strong emission between 376 and 390 nm in the films. In addition, good reversible reductive waves in the cyclic voltammograms implied that these materials might have good electron transport properties. Blue electrophosphorescent devices fabricated using these materials as the host materials and iridium(iii)bis[4,6-di-fluorophenyl-pyridinato-N,C2′]picolinate as the blue phosphorescent dopant emitter show very high efficiencies. A maximum luminance of 4484 cd m−2 and an external quantum efficiency of 6.20% were achieved under ambient conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]