New Bipolar Organic Materials for Optoelectronic Applications

Abstract

The literature surrounding organic small-molecule donor-acceptor systems is summarised for a range of optoelectronic applications (OLEDs, OPVs, OFETs etc.). There is a focus on the key building blocks: 1,3,4-oxadiazole (OXD), diphenylamine (DPA), carbazole (Cbz) and fluorene (F). The incorporation of such moieties into various donor-acceptor systems is discussed with further reference to selected alternative organic donor and acceptor systems.

The syntheses of novel bipolar molecules based on a donor-spacer-acceptor (DPA/Cbz-F-OXD) structure and the incorporation of these molecules into single-layer OLEDs is presented. It is demonstrated how the emission colour can be tuned from green to deep blue by systematic manipulation of the structure. A significant result is that high efficiency accompanied with pure, deep blue emission in single-layer OLEDs can be achieved with this structural motif. The incorporation of these materials as part of a simple two-component blend to produce white OLEDs is presented and the modification of the materials to improve electron-transport properties is discussed.

The synthesis of DPA-bridge-OXD wire systems is presented with the use of oligo-p-phenyleneethynylene units as a bridge of varying length to investigate the effect on charge transfer between the donor and acceptor. Photophysical studies demonstrate the change in absorption, emission and fluorescence lifetimes as the length scale of the molecules is altered. The synthesis of a series of planarised and twisted DPA-bridge-OXD systems based upon phenylene linkers is discussed.

Finally, a series of DPA-F-OXD-anchor molecules is presented for incorporation into DSSC devices. The synthesis of these materials is described and the suitability of various anchoring groups for DSSCs is analysed through photophysical and device studies.