Carbazole-endcapped Spiro[fluorene-9,9＇-xanthene] with Large Steric Hindrance as Hole-transporting Host for Heavily-doped and High Performance OLEDs

In this work, we designed and synthesized a novel spirocyclic compound functionalized spiro[fluorene-9,9＇- xanthene] with carbazole group （2-carbazolyl-spiro[fluorene-9,9＇-xanthene], SFX-Cz） via Friedel-Crafts and Ullmann reaction, which is expected to own high thermal and morphological stability, and good carrier injection/ transporting properties due to the excellent hole transporting characteristics of carbazole and cruciform structure of spiro[fluorene-9,9＇-xanthene]. The carbazole end-capped spiro[fluorene-9,9＇-xanthene] SFX-Cz based PhOLEDs with Flrpic as phosphor emitter have been researched by varying dopant concentration, which exhibit the maximum EQEs of 8.9%, 7.4%, 9.1%, and 4.7% with the doping increasing from 10% to 50%. The higher performance PhOLEDs are independent on concentration variation from 10% to 30%, which suggests the bulky steric hindrance of SFX-Cz might be a potential canditate for high performance and inexpensive device with simplified process.