Thermally crosslinked hole-transporting layers for cascade hole-injection and effective electron-blocking/exciton-confinement in phosphorescent polymer light-emitting diodes

A bilayer hole-injection/transport structure was prepared by thermally crosslinking two separate hole-transport layers (HTL). The resulting films possess excellent optical quality and solvent resistance. Cascade hole-injection and effective electron-blocking/exciton confinement can be achieved for light-emitting diodes (LEDs) using blue phosphorescent emitters, such asbis(4′,6′-difluorophenylpyridinato)tetrakis(1-pyrazolyl)borate. The first HTL was based on tetraphenyldiamine (TPD) has its highest occupied molecular orbit (HOMO) level lies at −5.3eV, and the second HTL with 4,4′,4″-tri(N-carbazolyl)triphenylamine has its HOMO level lies at −5.7eV. The preliminary results from blue LEDs using these cascade HTLs showed much improved device performance than those only use a single layer hole-transporting polymer.