Hole-transporting side-chain polystyrenes based on TCTA with tuned glass transition and optimized electronic properties†
Felix R. P. Limberg,Arunas Miasojedovas,Patrick Pingel,Felix Reisbeck,Silvia Janietz,Andrew P. Monkman,Hartmut Krüger
RSC Advances Pub Date : 09/30/2015 00:00:00 , DOI:10.1039/C5RA12963J
Abstract

The development of crosslinkable materials for the fabrication of solution processable OLEDs presents challenges, especially regarding the adjustment of the glass transition (Tg), which has a significant influence on crosslinking kinetics and device life-time. Crosslinkable hole transport materials based on poly(N,N-bis(4-(9H-carbazol-9-yl)phenyl)-4-vinylaniline) (poly-TCTA) with covalently attached plasticizers for Tg control and azide functionalities for azide-alkyne crosslinking are presented. These polymers have an optimal Tg of around 150 °C and show superior crosslinking performances and solution resistibilities. Incorporation of electron-pushing alkoxides to the pendant groups combines the Tg adjustment approach with a systematic tuning of the HOMO level from −5.7 to −5.3 eV. All presented polymers have good charge transport and injection properties and are ideal for applications in phosphorescent OLEDs due to their high triplet energies (>2.8 eV). The new crosslinkable poly-TCTA-based materials are applied as hole-transport layers (HTLs) in fully solution-processed OLEDs. An improvement of the device performance is demonstrated for OLEDs with additional crosslinked HTL.

Graphical abstract: Hole-transporting side-chain polystyrenes based on TCTA with tuned glass transition and optimized electronic properties