tert-Butylated spirobifluorene derivative incorporating triphenylamine groups: A deep-blue emitter with high thermal stability and good hole transport ability for organic light emitting diode applications

•Quite high thermal stability for organic light emitting diode applications.•Good hole-injection and -transporting ability.•The molecule can be prepared starting from the readily available reagent biphenyl.•The CIE coordinates is close to the standard for blue.•The EL performances are among the best comparing to recently reported blue emitting devices.

A tert-butylated spirobifluorene derivative incorporating triphenylamine groups was synthesized starting from the readily available reagent biphenyl. Without any hole-transport layer, an unoptimized double-layer device exhibits excellent electroluminescent performances with a radiance of 3013 cd/m2 at 9.8 V, a maximum electroluminescent efficiency of 1.71 cd/A, a maximal external quantum efficiency of 2.58% at a brightness of 4.8 cd/m2, narrow full width at half-maximum (<54 nm), and blue emission with Commission Internationale de l'Eclairage coordinates of (0.152, 0.103), which is close to the standard for blue. Compared to the reported organic light emitting diodes materials, the molecule displays very high thermal stability. In addition, the bilayer device showed a greatly improved performance as compared to a trilayer device with NPB as hole-transporting layer, which indicated that the molecule possesses good hole transport ability and can be good candidate for hole-transporting layer in organic light emitting diodes.

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