Synthesis and Application of Pyridine-Based Ambipolar Hosts: Control of Charge Balance in Organic Light-Emitting Devices by Chemical Structure Modification

We studied the influence of a pyridine moiety versus a phenyl moiety when introduced in the molecular design of an ambipolar host. These pyridine-based host materials for organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) were synthesized in three to five steps from commercially available starting materials. The isomeric hosts have similar HOMO/LUMO energies; however, data from OLEDs fabricated using the above host materials demonstrate that small structural modification of the host results in significant changes in its carrier-transporting characteristics.