Intense green-light emission from 9,10-bis (4-(1,2,2-triphenylvinyl)styryl)anthracene emitting electroluminescent devices

Abstract

Although 9,10-bis(4-(1,2,2-triphenylvinyl)styryl)anthracene (TPE-An) with excellent aggregation-induced emission (AIE) properties can effectively enhance the luminescence efficiency of light-emitting materials, the practical TPE-An-emitting electroluminescent (EL) devices have not been successfully fabricated until now. In our paper, the energy-band diagram of TPE-An is determined by the combination of ultraviolet-visible (UV-Vis) spectroscopy and cyclic voltammetry (CV) techniques. Subsequently, the space-charge-limited-current (SCLC) method is firstly used to obtain the hole mobility of TPE-An and design a better EL device structure. By calculation, the maximum hole mobility of the 50 nm TPE-An film can arrive at 4.00 × 10⁻⁴ cm² V⁻¹ s⁻¹ at 0.1 MV cm⁻¹ field. Finally, TPE-An-emitting EL devices have been, respectively, fabricated on glass and flexible PET substrates. Both of these two EL devices exhibit an intense green-light emission at 515 nm. Moreover, the maximum luminance of the EL device on glass can reach 24721.8 cd m⁻² at 10.0 V, and its maximum current efficiency is as high as 14.7 cd A⁻¹ at 131.6 mA cm⁻². It is noted that the flexible EL device on the PET substrate maintains a stable emission and nice working performance even if the bending angles arrive at 140°. Therefore, it suggests that TPE-An should have a promising future in EL device applications.