In this paper, we report two new phenanthroline-based compounds, 1,4-bis­(2-phenyl-1,10-phenanthrolin-4-yl)­benzene (p-bPPhenB) and 1,3-bis­(2-phenyl-1,10-phenanthrolin-4-yl)­benzene (m-bPPhenB), for the charge generation unit of tandem organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). These two compounds exhibited high electron mobility of (5.8–4.4) × 10–3 cm2/(V s), a very small injection barrier at the p–n junction interface, a high glass transition temperature of 123.9–182.1 °C, and exceptionally good operational stability. Because of such excellent characteristics, a single-stack red phosphorescent OLED (PhOLED) with p-bPPhenB showed a low driving voltage (2.7 V) and significantly improved maximum power efficiency (56.8 lm/W), external quantum efficiency (30.8%), and device lifetime (LT95, 130 h) compared to those of the control device using bathophenanthroline (Bphen) (3.7 V, 39 lm/W, 27.1%, and 13 h). Furthermore, a two-stack (tandem) red PhOLED using p-bPPhenB in the charge generation unit exhibited superior charge generation as well as electron transport properties and excellent device performances (5.0 V, 54.0 lm/W, 56.1%) compared to those of the tandem device using Bphen (6.2 V, 45.2 lm/W, 53.3%).

Pristine graphene and a graphene interlayer inserted between indium tin oxide (ITO) and p-GaN have been analyzed and compared with ITO, which is a typical current spreading layer in lateral GaN LEDs. Beyond a certain current injection, the pristine graphene current spreading layer (CSL) malfunctioned due to Joule heat that originated from the high sheet resistance and low work function of the CSL. However, by combining the graphene and the ITO to improve the sheet resistance, it was found to be possible to solve the malfunctioning phenomenon. Moreover, the light output power of an LED with a graphene interlayer was stronger than that of an LED using ITO or graphene CSL. We were able to identify that the improvement originated from the enhanced current spreading by inspecting the contact and conducting the simulation.

The impact of anode buffer layers (ABLs) on the performance of CdSe quantum-dot light-emitting diodes (QLED) with a ZnO nanoparticle (NP) electron-transport layer and 4,4′-cyclohexylidenebis[N,N-bis(4-methylphenyl)benzenamine] (TAPC) hole-transport layer was studied. Either MoO3 or 1,4,5,8,9,11-hexaazatriphenylene hexacarbonitrile (HAT-CN) was used as the ABL. The QLED with a HAT-CN ABL exhibited better luminance performance, while the ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy and hole-only devices indicated that MoO3 was a superior hole injector. These results suggest that the QLED with a MoO3 ABL suffered from a severe charge carrier imbalance. Therefore, electron injection through the ZnO NP layer must be improved to further enhance the QLED performance.