Peculiarities of the Energy Transfer of Electronic Excitation in Carbazolyle-Containing Polymers

Abstract

Luminescence spectra of poly-N-vinylcarbazole (PVK), poly-N-epoxypropylcarbazole (PEPK), poly-N-vinyl-3-chlorocarbazole (Cl-PVK), and polystyrene (PS) films doped with bis[2-(2′-benzothienyl)-pyridinato-N,C3′](acetylacetonate) iridium [Btp2Ir(acac)] have been studied. The indicated carbazole-containing polymers are promising for the application in electroluminescence devices. The quantum yield of sensitized phosphorescence by Btp2Ir(acac) molecules in carbazole-containing polymer matrices is found to be lower than at their direct excitation in the PS matrix. The additional doping of the PVK-based composite with benzophenone, which transforms some of singlet excitons into triplet ones, diminishes the intensity of the sensitized phosphorescence of Btp2Ir(acac) molecules, which testifies that the efficiency of energy transfer via singlet excitons is higher than via triplet ones. The results obtained can be explained by a competition between the process of energy transfer onto the acceptor site, on the one hand, and the processes of exciton localization at the tail energy states and the trapping of triplet excitons by the products of polymer oxidation, on the other hand. The quantum yield of sensitized phosphorescence by Btp2Ir(acac) molecules in the PVK matrix is found to be almost 1.5 times lower than in the PEPK one. A conclusion is drawn that, in the PVKmatrix, the process of singlet exciton autolocalization at excimer-forming centers followed by the creation of sandwich-like excimers competes with the process of excitation energy transfer onto the acceptor.