Viktorija Mimaite

Can hydrogen bonds improve the hole-mobility in amorphous organic semiconductors? Experimental and theoretical insights

Five hole-transporting triphenylamine derivatives containing methoxy and methyl groups are synthesized and investigated. The hole-mobility increases in the presence of methyl and methoxy substituents, exceeding 10−2 cm2 V−1 s−1 in the case of methyl groups. Quantum mechanical calculations on these compounds indicate very different dipole moments and intermolecular interaction strengths, with intriguing correlations with the trend in hole-mobility. Temperature dependent hole-mobility measurements indicate disorder dominated hole transport. The values of the energetic disorder parameter (σ) decrease upon methyl and methoxy substitutions despite the increase in dipole moments. This trend is discussed as a function of the interaction energy between adjacent molecules, the dipole moment, the molecular polarizability, and the conformational degree of freedom. Our results indicate that the global decrease of σ upon methyl and methoxy substitutions is dominated by the larger decrease in the geometrical randomness component of the energetic disorder. A direct correlation is established between the decrease in geometrical randomness and the increase in intermolecular interaction energies, mainly stemming from the additional C–H⋯π, O, N hydrogen bonds induced by methyl and methoxy groups.

Aggregation-Enhanced Emission and Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescence of Derivatives of 9-Phenyl-9H-Carbazole: Effects of Methoxy and tert-Butyl Substituents

Derivatives of 9-phenyl-9H-carbazole were synthesized as efficient emitters exhibiting both thermally activated delayed fluorescence and aggregation-induced emission enhancement. Effects of methoxy and tert-butyl substituents at the different positions of carbazolyl groups on the properties of the emitters were studied. Depending on the substitutions, photoluminescence quantum yields (PLQY) of non-doped solid films of the compounds ranged from 17 % to 53 % which were much higher than those observed for the solutions in low-polarity solvent toluene. Compounds substituted at C-3 and C-6 positions of carbazole moiety by methoxy- and tert-butyl- groups showed the highest solid-state PLQY. Ionization potentials of the studied derivatives in solid-state were found to be in the short range of 5.75-5.89 eV. Well-balanced hole and electron mobilities were detected for tert-butyl-substituted compound. They exceeded 10-4  cm2  (V×s)-1 at electric fields higher than 3×105  V cm-1 . Two compounds with the highest solid-state PLQYs showed higher efficiencies in non-doped organic light-emitting diodes than in the doped devices. Maximum external quantum efficiency of 7.2 % and brightness of 15000 cd m-2 were observed for the best device.