Europium β-diketonates for red-emitting electroluminescent devices

Organic light-emitting devices were fabricated, wherein europium beta-diketonates of the general formula Eu (X)(3)(L) are the active emitting materials [L=2,4,6-tri(2-pyridyl)-1,3,5-triazine (TPTZ) or 4,4'-dimethoxy-2,2'-bipyricline (dmbipy); X is the conjugate base of 4,4,4-trifluoro-1-phenyl-1,3-butanedione (HBTFA), thenoyltrifluoroacetone (HTTA), or 1,1,1,5,5,5-hexafluoro-2,4-pentanedione (HHFAC)]. Red luminescence characteristic of Eu(III) at about 614 nm was observed in each of the five devices of the general device configuration ITO/NPB/Eu(X)(3)(L):CBP/BCP/AlQ/LiF/Al [ITO, indium tin oxide; NPB, 4,4'-bis[n-(1-naphthyI)-N-phenyl-amino]biphenyl; CBP, 4,4'-N,N'-dicarbazolebiphenyl; BCP, 2,9-dimethyl-4,7-diphenyl-1,10-phenanthroline; AIQ, tris(8-hydroxy)quinoline aluminum]. Except for Eu(BTFA)(3)(TPT-Z), each of the other four complexes gave practically meaningful device performance. In particular, the device utilizing Eu(TTA)(3)(TPTZ) exhibited a maximum brightness of 781 cd/m(2) and the highest current efficiency reported so far of 4.76 cd/A at a typical computer screen brightness (100 cd/m(2) (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.