Highly efficient non-doped blue-light-emitting diodes based on an anthrancene derivative end-capped with tetraphenylethylene groups

A novel blue-emitting material, 2-tert-butyl-9,10-bis[4-(1,2,2-triphenylvinyl)phenyl]anthracene (TPVAn), which contains an anthracene core and two tetraphenylethylene end-capped groups, has been synthesized and characterized. Owing to the presence of its sterically congested terminal groups, TPVAn possesses a high glass transition temperature (155 degrees C) and is morphologically stable. Organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) utilizing TPVAn as the emitter exhibit bright saturated-blue emissions (Commission Internationale de L'Eclairage (CIE) chromaticity coordinates of x = 0.14 and y = 0.12) with efficiencies as high as 5.3% (5.3 cd A(-1)) - the best performance of non-doped deep blue-emitting OLEDs reported to date. In addition, TPVAn doped with an orange fluorophore served as an authentic host for the construction of a white-light-emitting device that displayed promising electroluminescent characteristics: the maximum external quantum efficiency reached 4.9% (13.1 cd A(-1)) with CIE coordinates located at (0.33, 0.39).