No abstract

Linking topology in oligocarbazoles (see figure) has a strong influence on their electronic properties. 3(6),9′‐linked oligocarbazoles exhibit unusual suppression of electronic coupling between units, leading to localized excited states and very small reduction of triplet energies (compared to the monomer). Coupled with their excellent morphological stability, this makes them suitable as host materials for blue electrophosphorescence devices.

Among organic materials vitrification for many years was regarded mainly as a privilege of polymers. However, recently a lot of attention is paid to organic low molar mass compounds that readily form glasses above room temperature. Such compounds are called molecular glasses or amorphous molecular materials. Among these materials the most widely studied are charge‐transporting molecular glasses used in copiers and laser printers, organic light‐emitting diodes, photovoltaic devices, and as photorefractive materials. Two types of molecular glasses, i.e., p‐type (hole‐transporting), and n‐type (electron‐transporting) are discussed. Work of the laboratories of the authors is emphasized. In addition, an overview of current and potential applications for these materials is presented.

Elaboration of the appropriate host materials proved to be not less important for the fabrication of a highly efficient OLED than the design of emitters. In the present work, we show how by simple variation of molecular structure both blue emitters exhibiting delayed fluorescence and ambipolar high triplet energy hosts can be obtained. The compounds with a para-junction revealed higher thermal stability (T up to 480 °C), lower ionization potentials (5.51-5.60 eV), exclusively hole transport, and higher photoluminescence quantum efficiencies (0.90-0.97). Meta-linkage leads to ambipolar charge transport and higher triplet energies (2.82 eV). Introduction of the accepting nitrile groups in the para-position induces intensive delayed fluorescence via a triplet-triplet annihilation up-conversion mechanism. By utilization of the para-substituted derivative as an emitter and the meta-substituted isomer as the host, a deep-blue OLED with the external quantum efficiency of 14.1% was fabricated.

This tutorial review covers recent contributions in the area of hole-transporting hydrazones, which are widely used in optoelectronic devices. It is addressed to students and researchers interested in the synthesis and properties of organic electroactive materials. The thermal, charge transport and other properties of electroactive hydrazones are compared and the relationships between the molecular structures and properties are emphasized. The first part discusses the low-molar-mass hydrazones and presents examples of their synthetic routes and chemical structures. In the second part, polymeric arylaldehyde hydrazones containing hydrazone moieties as the side substituents and in the main-chain are described.