Bright electroluminescence from a conjugated dendrimer

Photoluminescence and electroluminescence (EL) from a conjugated dendrimer consisting of three distyrylbenzene units linked by a central nitrogen atom as core and meta-linked biphenyl units as dendrons were investigated. The conjugated dendrimer emits green light and shows photoluminescence quantum efficiency of 9%. Bright electroluminescence was realized by using bilayer devices with blurred interface, which were fabricated by sequentially spin coating a neat dendrimer and a dendrimer doped with 2-(4-biphenyl)-5-(4-tert-butylphenyl)-1,3,4-oxadiazole (PBD). The devices have the following structure: indium tin oxide/3,4-polyethylenedioxythiothene-polystyrenesulfonate/dendrimer/ dendrimer:PBD/Al. By optimizing the concentration of PBD, the maximum brightness and EL quantum efficiency reach 4100 cd/m2 and 0.17%, respectively. This is the best result reported so far on organic light-emitting diodes using dendrimer as an active material with an Al cathode.