Polyethers with pendent phenylvinyl substituted carbazole rings as polymers for hole transporting layers of OLEDs

• Polymers with phenylvinylcarbazole chromophores have been synthesized.
• Electro-active layers of the materials were tested in OLEDs.
• An electroluminescent OLED with Alq3 emitter demonstrated efficiency of 4.0 cd/A.

Polyethers containing pendent 3-(2-phenylvinyl)carbazole moieties have been synthesized by the multi-step synthetic routes. Full characterization of their structures is presented. The polymers represent materials of high thermal stability with initial thermal degradation temperatures exceeding 370 °C. The glass transition temperatures of the amorphous materials were in the range of 56–658 °C. The electron photoemission spectra of thin layers of the polymers showed ionization potentials of about 5.6 eV. Hole-transporting properties of the polymeric materials were tested in the structures of organic light emitting diodes with Alq3 as the green emitter and electron transporting layer. The device containing hole-transporting layers of poly{9-[6-(3-methyloxetan-3-ylmethoxy)hexyl]-3-(2-phenylvinyl)carbazole} exhibited the best overall performance with a maximum photometric efficiency of about 4.0 cd/A and maximum brightness exceeding 6430 cd/m2.