Composition and an electronic device containing a sensitizer and a fluorescent emitter

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12035620-B2
Application number	US-201917276099-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 12, 2019
Priority date	Sep 12, 2018
Publication date	Jul 9, 2024
Grant date	Jul 9, 2024

Abstract

A composition containing at least one sensitizer and at least one fluorescent emitter, wherein the sensitizer is a phosphorescent compound and wherein the fluorescent emitter is a sterically shielded compound having a shielding factor (SF) of not less than 0.45. In addition, the invention is to a fluorescent electronic device containing a sensitizer and a fluorescent emitter, wherein the sensitizer is a phosphorescent compound and wherein the fluorescent emitter is a sterically shielded compound.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A fluorescent electronic device comprising a sensitizer and a fluorescent emitter, wherein the sensitizer is a phosphorescent compound and wherein the fluorescent emitter is a sterically shielded compound.

2. The fluorescent electronic device according to claim 1 , wherein the fluorescent emitter is a sterically shielded compound having a shielding factor (SF) of not less than 0.65.

3. The fluorescent electronic device according to claim 1 , wherein at least one of the two following conditions (I) or (II) must be satisfied:
S 1 K ( FE )− S 1 K ( S )≥ X   (I)

S 1 max ( FE )− S 1 max ( S )≥ Y   (II)

where the parameters used are as follows:
X, Y are each −0.5 ev
S 1 K (FE) is the energy of the first excited singlet state of the fluorescent emitter which is ascertained from the edge of the first maximum on the short-wavelength side of the normalized photoluminescence spectrum of the fluorescent emitter;
S 1 K (S) is the energy of the first excited state of the sensitizer which is ascertained from the edge of the first maximum on the short-wavelength side of the normalized photoluminescence spectrum of the sensitizer;
S 1 max (FE) is the energy of the first excited singlet state of the fluorescent emitter which is ascertained from the location of the first maximum at short wavelengths of the photoluminescence spectrum of the fluorescent emitter;
S 1 max (S) is the energy of the first excited state of the sensitizer which is ascertained from the location of the first maximum at short wavelengths of the photoluminescence spectrum of the sensitizer;
wherein the photoluminescence spectra of the sensitizer and of the fluorescent emitter are determined from solution at a concentration of 1 mg in 100 ml of toluene at room temperature.

4. The fluorescent electronic device according to claim 3 , wherein X and Y are −0.4 eV.

5. The fluorescent electronic device according to claim 3 , wherein both conditions (I) and (II) are satisfied.

6. The fluorescent electronic device according to claim 1 , wherein excitation energy is transferred from the sensitizer to the fluorescent emitter and the fluorescent emitter emits excitation energy absorbed by the sensitizer by fluorescence.

7. The fluorescent electronic device according to claim 1 , wherein a photoluminescence emission spectrum of the sensitizer overlaps with an absorption spectrum of the fluorescent emitter.

8. The fluorescent electronic device according to claim 1 , wherein a metal-to-ligand charge transfer (MLCT) band of a photoluminescence spectrum of the sensitizer overlaps with an absorption spectrum of the fluorescent emitter.

9. The fluorescent electronic device according to claim 1 , wherein a magnitude of the triplet metal-to-ligand charge transfer ( 3 MLCT) band of a photoluminescence spectrum of the sensitizer and an absorption maximum of the fluorescent emitter satisfies the following condition (III):
|λ em 3 MLCT ( S )−λ abs max ( FE )|≤ V   (III)

where Vis 0.5 eV;
and where λ em 3 MLCT (S) is the triplet metal-to-ligand charge transfer ( 3 MLCT) band of the photoluminescence spectrum of the sensitizer and is found from the edge in the photoluminescence spectrum of the sensitizer and λ abs max (FE) is the peak absorption wavelength of the first maximum at long wavelengths of the fluorescent emitter, where the values are each calculated in electron volts.

10. The fluorescent electronic device according to claim 1 , wherein the following condition (IV) is satisfied
λ em 3 MLCT ( S )−λ abs max ( FE )≤ W   (IV)

where W is 0.5 ev;
and where λ em 3 MLCT (S) is a triplet metal-to-ligand charge transfer ( 3 MLCT) band of a photoluminescence spectrum of the sensitizer and is found from the edge in the photoluminescence spectrum of the sensitizer and λ abs max (FE) is the peak absorption wavelength of a first maximum at long wavelengths of the fluorescent emitter, where the values are each calculated in electron volts.

11. The fluorescent electronic device according to claim 1 , wherein the sensitizer is a phosphorescent compound from a group of the organometallic complexes.

12. The fluorescent electronic device according to claim 1 , wherein the sensitizer is a phosphorescent compound from a group of organometallic complexes containing Cu, Ir, Pt, Rh, Ru, Os or Pd.

13. The fluorescent electronic device according to claim 1 , wherein the fluorescent emitter is a purely organic compound devoid of metals or metal ions.

14. The fluorescent electronic device according to claim 1 , wherein the fluorescent emitter is a purely organic compound devoid of metals or metal ions, selected from a group of fused aromatics having 6 to 60 aromatic ring atoms.

15. The fluorescent electronic device according to claim 1 , wherein the fluorescent emitter is a purely organic compound devoid of metals or metal ions, selected from a group of pyrenes, perylenes, rubrenes, anthracenes, fluorenes and indenofluorenes.

16. The fluorescent electronic device according to claim 1 , wherein the fluorescent emitter is a purely organic compound devoid of metals or metal ions, with aromatic groups in substituted form.

17. The fluorescent electronic device according to claim 1 , wherein both the sensitizer and the fluorescent emitter are in the same layer.

18. The fluorescent electronic device according to claim 1 , wherein the sensitizer and the fluorescent emitter are in an emission layer.

19. The fluorescent electronic device according to claim 1 , wherein a layer in which the sensitizer and the fluorescent emitter arc present contains a further material selected from a group of electron transport materials, hole conductor materials, quantum materials, bipolar hosts, wide band gap materials, phosphorescent emitters, fluorescent emitters, and materials having delayed fluorescence.

20. The fluorescent electronic device according to claim 1 , wherein a layer in which the sensitizer and the fluorescent emitter are present does not contain any further material.

21. The fluorescent electronic device according to claim 1 , wherein the sensitizer and the fluorescent emitter are in different layers adjoining one another.

22. The fluorescent electronic device according to claim 21 , wherein the device contains a region having a layer sequence [SL/FEL] n -SL where n is an integer from 1 to 5, SL is a layer containing the sensitizer and FEL is a layer containing the fluorescent emitter, and wherein the sensitizers in the different SL layers may be different from one another and wherein the fluorescent emitters in different FEL layers may be different from one another.

23. A composition comprising at least one sensitizer and at least one fluorescent emitter, wherein the sensitizer is a phosphorescent compound and wherein the fluorescent emitter is a sterically shielded compound having a shielding factor (SF) of not less than 0.45.

24. The composition according to claim 23 , wherein the composition comprises at least one further material selected from a group of the electron transport materials, electron injection materials, electron blocker materials, hole transport materials, hole injection materials, hole blocker materials, n-dopants, p-dopants, quantum materials (preferably quantum dots), host or matrix materials, wide band gap materials, phosphorescent emitters, fluorescent emitters or emitters having delayed fluorescence.

Assignees

• Merck Patent Gmbh

Inventors

• Stengel Ilona
• Horn Antonia
• May Falk
• Lackner Aaron
• Pflumm Christof
• Mekic Amel
• Haase Nils

Classifications

• H10K2101/40

  Interrelation of parameters between multiple constituent active layers or sublayers, e.g. HOMO values in adjacent layers · CPC title

• H10K2101/30

  Highest occupied molecular orbital [HOMO], lowest unoccupied molecular orbital [LUMO] or Fermi energy values · CPC title

• H10K2101/10

  Triplet emission · CPC title

• H10K50/121 Primary

  for assisting energy transfer, e.g. sensitization · CPC title

• H10K50/11

  characterised by the electroluminescent [EL] layers · CPC title