Atul Chaskar

Bipolar Host Materials: A Chemical Approach for Highly Efficient Electrophosphorescent Devices

The future of organic light-emitting devices (OLEDs) is drifting from electrofluorescence toward electrophosphorescence due to the feasibility of realizing 100% internal quantum efficiency. There is limited availability of transition metals (TMs) such as Ir, Os, and Pt, which are used for color-tunable phosphorescent emitters, and the use of the host-guest strategy is necessary for suppressing the detrimental triplet-triplet annihilation inherently imparted by the TM-centered emitters. The inevitable demands of organic host materials provide organic chemists with tremendous opportunities to contribute their expertise to this technology. With suitable molecular design and judicious selection of chemical structures featured with different electronic nature, the incorporation of hole-transporting (HT) and electron-transporting (ET) moieties combines the advantages of both functional units into bipolar host materials, which perform balanced injection/transportation/recombination of charge carriers and consequentially lead the OLEDs to have higher performances and low roll-off efficiencies. This review highlights recently developed bipolar host materials with the focus on molecular design strategies and the structure-property-performance relationships of various classes of bipolar host materials, which are classified into several categories according to the structural features of their constituents (HT/ET blocks and spacers).

A diarylborane-substituted carbazole as a universal bipolar host material for highly efficient electrophosphorescence devices

Recently bipolar phosphorescent host materials have attracted wide attention since they can achieve better charge balance and hence better device performance. In this work, we report the synthesis and physical properties of a novel bipolar host material containing the dimesityl borane/carbazole hybrid, CMesB. With a high triplet energy, CMesB is considered a promising universal host material and has been applied to phosphorescent OLEDs of various colors. Red/green/blue/white (RGBW) OLEDs based on CMesB all show high external quantum efficiencies (20.7% for red, 20.0% for green, 16.5% for blue, and 15.7% for white) at practical brightnesses. The results indicate that the bipolar host CMesB with high triplet energy has high potential in manufacturing RGBW OLEDs for display or lighting applications.

Carbazole–benzimidazole hybrid bipolar host materials for highly efficient green and blue phosphorescent OLEDs

In this study, we synthesized a series of bipolar hosts (CbzCBI, mCPCBI, CbzNBI, and mCPNBI) containing hole-transporting carbazole and electron-transporting benzimidazole moieties and then examined the morphological, thermal, and photophysical properties and carrier mobilities of these bipolar host materials. Altering the linking topology (C- or N-connectivity of the benzimidazole) changed the effective conjugation length and led to different excited-state solvent relaxation behavior. The N-connected compounds (CbzNBI, mCPNBI) possessed higher triplet energies (ET) than those of their C-connected analogues (CbzCBI, mCPCBI) by 0.23 eV. The higher values of ET of CbzNBI and mCPNBI endowed them with the ability to confine triplet excitons on the blue-emitting guest. A blue PhOLED device incorporating mCPNBI achieved a maximum external quantum efficiency, current efficiency, and power efficiency of 16.3%, 35.7 cd A−1, and 23.3 lm W−1, respectively; confirming the suitability of using N-connected bipolar hosts for the blue phosphor. The donor/acceptor interactions of the C-connected analogue resulted in a lower triplet energy, making it a suitable bipolar host for green phosphors. A green-phosphorescent device incorporating CbzCBI as the host doped with (PBi)2Ir(acac) achieved a maximum external quantum efficiency, current efficiency, and power efficiency of 20.1%, 70.4 cd A−1, and 63.2 lm W−1, respectively.

Indolo[3,2-b]carbazole/benzimidazole hybrid bipolar host materials for highly efficient red, yellow, and green phosphorescent organic light emitting diodes

By incorporating electron-accepting benzimidazole and electron-donating indolo[3,2-b]carbazole into one molecule, two novel donor–acceptor bipolar host materials, TICCBI and TICNBI, have been synthesized. The photophysical and electrochemical properties of the hybrids can be tuned through the different linkages (C- or N-connectivity) between the electronic donor and acceptor components. The promising physical properties of these two new compounds made them suitable for use as hosts doped with various Ir or Os-based phosphors for realizing highly efficient phosphorescent organic light emitting diodes (PhOLEDs). PhOLEDs using TICCBI and TICNBI as hosts incorporated with Ir-based emitters such as green (PPy)2Ir(acac), yellow (Bt)2Ir(acac), and two new red emitters (35dmPh-6Fiq)2Ir(acac) (i3) and (4tBuPh-6Fiq)2Ir(acac) (i6) accomplished high external quantum efficiencies ranging from 14 to 16.2%. Nevertheless, the red PhOLED device incorporating TICNBI doped with the red emitter osmium(II) bis[3-(trifluoromethyl)-5-(4-tert-butylpyridyl)-1,2,4-triazolate]dimethylphenylphosphine [Os(bpftz)2(PPhMe2)2] achieved a maximum external quantum efficiency, current efficiency, and power efficiency of 22%, 28 cd A−1, and 22.1 lm W−1, respectively, with CIE coordinates of (0.65,0.35). The external quantum efficiency remained high (20%) as the brightness reached to 1000 cd m−2, suggesting balanced charge fluxes within the emitting layer, rendering devices with limited efficiency roll-off.

Miceller media accelerated Baylis–Hillman reaction

Triton X-100 aqueous micelle accelerates the rate of Baylis–Hillman reaction and enhances the product yield. The type and concentration of surfactants play prominent roles in the reaction. An aqueous micelle Triton X-100 is easily recovered and reused for four runs without substantial loss in yield. 1,4-diazabicyclo[2.2.2]octane (DABCO) (20 mol%) is found to be a good basic catalyst in aqueous micelle. Apparently, this protocol has several advantages such as green reaction medium, mild reaction condition, ease of product recovery and moderate-to-good yield of product.

Highly twisted biphenyl-linked carbazole–benzimidazole hybrid bipolar host materials for efficient PhOLEDs

Three new highly twisted bipolar host materials (PhczNBI, PhczCBI, and PhczDCBI) comprising of a biphenyl core linking a hole-transport 9-phenylcarbazole (donor) and an electron-transport N-phenylbenzimidazole (acceptor) with different topologies were synthesized, characterized, and applied as host materials for full-color phosphorescent OLEDs. The highly twisted conformations imparted through a 2,2′-biphenyl linkage effectively disrupt the π-conjugation and electronic coupling between the donor and the acceptor, thus giving the bipolar hosts promising properties such as bipolar charge transport features (μh ≈ μe ≈ 10−6 to 10−4 cm2 V−1 s−1) and high triplet energies (ET = 2.55–2.71 eV). The PhOLED device gave a maximum external quantum efficiency (ηext) of 19.6% for the PhczNBI host with a yellow phosphor (Bt)2Ir(acac). A two-color, single-emitting-layer and all-phosphor WOLED hosted by PhczDCBI achieved high efficiencies (13.9%, 34.9 cd A−1, and 24.8 lm W−1) and a CRI up to 65.5.

IBX in aqueous medium: a green protocol for the Biginelli reaction

Iodoxy benzoic acid (IBX) used as an effective catalyst for the synthesis 3,4-dihydropyrimidine-2(1H)-ones (DHPMs) via the Biginelli reaction in water. The immobilized catalyst could be easily recovered by simple filtration and recycled without significant decrease of the catalytic activity.

Heteropoly Acids as Heterogeneous and Reusable Catalyst for α-Thiocyanation of Ketones

Simple, efficient, and mild method for α-thiocyanation of ketones in presence of heteropolyacid has been developed. This methodology offered α-oxothiocyanates in good to excellent yields at room temperature in a highly selective manner. The catalyst could be efficiently recovered from the reaction and reused.

Metal-Free Dehomologative Oxidation of Arylacetic Acids for the Synthesis of Aryl Carboxylic Acids

A novel I2-promoted direct conversion of arylacetic acids into aryl carboxylic acids under metal-free conditions has been described. This remarkable transformation involves decarboxylation followed by an oxidation reaction enabled just by using DMSO as the solvent as well as an oxidant. Notably, aryl carboxylic acids are isolated by simple filtration technique and obtained in good to excellent yields. This protocol is free from chromatographic purification, which makes it applicable for large-scale synthesis.

O-iodoxybenzoic acid in water: optimized green alternative for multicomponent one-pot synthesis of 2-amino-3,5-dicarbonitrile-6-thiopyridines

A multicomponent one-pot reaction of aromatic aldehyde, malononitrile and thiophenol in the presence of iodoxybenzoic acid (IBX) in aqueous media furnished 2-amino-3,5-dicarbonitrile-6-thiopyridine in good to excellent yield. Eventually, a catalyst could be easily recovered and reused without loss of its catalytic property.