δ-Carboline-based bipolar host materials for deep blue thermally activated delayed fluorescence OLEDs with high efficiency and low roll-off characteristic.

Two bipolar host materials, 8-(9H-carbazol-9-yl)-5-(pyridin-2-yl)-5H-pyrido[3,2-b]indole (CzCbPy) and 5-(6-(9H-carbazol-9-yl)pyridin-2-yl)-8-(9H-carbazol-9-yl)-5H-pyrido[3,2-b]indole (2CzCbPy), were synthesized for deep blue thermally activated delayed fluorescence organic light emitting diodes (TADF OLEDs). Both CzCbPy and 2CzCbPy hosts possess bipolar characteristic with high polarity, which results in high delayed photoluminescence quantum yields by reducing the energy gap between singlet and triplet states of TADF materials. In addition, these hosts have high enough triplet energies of 3.05 eV to transfer exciton energy to a deep blue TADF emitter. A deep blue TADF OLED fabricated with a CzCbPy host exhibited high external quantum efficiency of 22.9% and low efficiency roll-off (19.2% at 1000 cd m-2).