Ultra-efficient and stable OLED devices can be obtained
via effective
charge injection, accumulation, and exciton confinement into the emissive
layer. However, the leakage of charge and excitons from the EML to
adjacent layers can lead to low device performance. Thus, high-triplet-energy
charge-transport materials (CTMs) are required to confront these issues.
Herein, we demonstrate a class of efficient arylamine derivatives, viz.
TPA-Py, TPA-2Py, and DPA-2Py, which were synthesized through the insertion of triphenyl
pyridine as an acceptor unit to the aryl amino system to accomplish
high triplet energy, thermal stability, and charge transportability
during device operation. The charge-transfer analysis of the developed
materials was accomplished for the S1 and T1 states through theoretical simulation. The intramolecular hole reorganization
energies helped in understanding the hole transportability of these
molecules. Single-crystal analysis indicated a considerable dihedral
angle across the units, quasiplanar geometries, and the nonexistence
of π–π stacking in the solid state. These molecular
materials exhibited good thermal stability, which improve the morphological
stability of their thin films. All of the molecules possess suitable
HOMO energy levels for hole injection and appropriate LUMO energy
levels for electron blocking from the emissive layer. Moreover, their
high triplet energy (up to 2.69 eV) prevents exciton transfer from
the EML to HTL and results in better device performance. The device
with DPA-2Py as an HTM in a green OLED showed the maximum
current efficiency (CE) and power efficiency (PE) values of ∼74
cd/A and ∼72 lm/W, respectively, with a maximum EQE of ∼21%.
The PE of the current device is at par with the highest reported PE
so far in solution-processed phosphorescent OLEDs.