Hany Aziz

Studies on the long-term degradation of organic light-emitting devices (OLEDs) based on tris(8-hydroxyquinoline) aluminum (AlQ3), the most widely used electroluminescent molecule, reveal that injection of holes in AlQ3 is the main cause of device degradation. The transport of holes into AlQ3 caused a decrease in its fluorescence quantum efficiency, thus showing that cationic AlQ3 species are unstable and that their degradation products are fluorescence quenchers. These findings explain the success of different approaches to stabilizing OLEDs, such as doping of the hole transport layer, introducing a buffer layer at the hole-injecting contact, and using mixed emitting layers of hole and electron transporting molecules.

A new electron acceptor building block, 3,6-di(pyridin-2-yl)pyrrolo[3,4-c ]pyrrole-1,4(2H ,5H)-dione (DBPy), is used to construct a donor-acceptor polymer, PDBPyBT. This polymer exhibits a strong self-assembly capability, to form highly crystalline and oriented thin films with a short π–π stacking distance of 0.36 nm. PDBPyBT shows ambipolar charge-transport performance in organic thin-film transistors, reaching a record high electron-mobility value of 6.30 cm2 V−1 s−1. As a service to our authors and readers, this journal provides supporting information supplied by the authors. Such materials are peer reviewed and may be re-organized for online delivery, but are not copy-edited or typeset. Technical support issues arising from supporting information (other than missing files) should be addressed to the authors. Please note: The publisher is not responsible for the content or functionality of any supporting information supplied by the authors. Any queries (other than missing content) should be directed to the corresponding author for the article.

Studies of electroluminescence degradation mechanisms in small-molecule-based organic light-emitting devices (OLEDs) are reviewed. Luminescence degradation due to the growth of visible nonemissive defects, widely referred to as "dark spots", as well as device catastrophic failure phenomena are addressed briefly. A special emphasis is given to intrinsic degradation phenomena that cause the decrease in the electroluminescence efficiency of the OLEDs during operation. In the discussion of intrinsic degradation, some widely accepted models that have been proposed to explain the degradation behavior are introduced and reviewed in view of experimental observations. These models are (i) the morphological instability model, (ii) the unstable cationic AlQ3 model, (iii) the indium migration model, (iv) the mobile ionic impurities model, and (v) the immobile positive charge accumulation model.

Abstract Triplet–triplet annihilation (TTA) is studied in a wide range of fluorescent host:guest emitter systems used in organic light‐emitting devices (OLEDs). Strong TTA is observed in host:guest systems in which the dopant has a limited charge‐trapping capability. On the other hand, systems in which the dopant can efficiently trap charges show insignificant TTA, an effect that is due, in part, to the efficient quenching of triplet excitons by the trapped charges. Fluorescent host:guest systems with the strongest TTA are found to give the highest OLED electroluminescence efficiency, a phenomenon attributed to the role of TTA in converting triplet excitons into additional singlet excitons, thus appreciably contributing to the light output of OLEDs. The results shed light on and give direct evidence for the phenomena behind the recently reported very high efficiencies attainable in fluorescent host:guest OLEDs with quantum efficiencies exceeding the classical 25% theoretical limit.

We report electroluminescence degradation studies of tris (8-hydroxyquinoline) aluminum (Alq3) organic light-emitting devices (OLEDs) under ambient conditions. Alq3 films and organic bilayer anode/naphthyl-substituted benzidine derivative/Alq3/cathode devices are studied via electroluminescence, photoluminescence, polarization microscopy and atomic force microscopy, and via microscopic infrared spectroscopy. Results reveal that humidity induces the formation of crystalline Alq3 structures in originally amorphous films. The same phenomenon is found to occur in OLEDs and causes cathode delamination at the Alq3/cathode interface that results in the formation of black (nonemissive) spots in the devices.