High triplet energy polymer as host for electrophosphorescence with high efficiency.

We report the conjugated polymer P(tBu-CBP) as a host with high triplet energy (E(T) 2.53 eV) and suitable HOMO (5.3 eV) and LUMO (2.04 eV) energy levels. Upon doping with green and red emission Ir-complexes, it gives devices with high luminous and external quantum efficiencies for green emission (23.7 cd/A, 6.57%) and for red emission (5.1 cd/A, 4.23%), respectively, and low turn-on voltage (3 V). For both devices, the efficiencies are higher than those of the corresponding devices with the same backbone P(3,6-Cz) as a host by a factor of 4, even though the latter has an E(T) (2.6 eV) slightly higher than that of the former. The results reflect that, in phosphorescent devices, the difference in E(T) between the host and guest is not the only factor that determines the device efficiency, and the present side group modification via the 9 position of carbazole also plays an important role, which allows a tuning of HOMO and LUMO levels to provide more balance in electron and hole fluxes and provides prevention from formation of excimer.