Fluorinated anthracene derivatives as deep-blue emitters and host materials for highly efficient organic light-emitting devices

        Novel fluorinated anthracene based deep-blue-emitting molecules, namely 9,10-bis-(n0-fluoro-biphenyl-
3-yl)-anthracene (nF-DPAs), have been designed and synthesized by a Suzuki cross-coupling reaction. The
influence of substitution position of fluorinated electron-withdrawing group on the energy levels and
photophysical properties of nF-DPAs was studied by experiment and density functional theory (DFT).
Organic light-emitting devices (OLEDs) using nF-DPAs as non-doped emitter exhibit bright deep blue
electroluminescence with Commisssion Internationale de L'Eclairage (CIE) coordinates of (0.15, 0.09) for
2F-DPA, (0.15, 0.09) for 3F-DPA, and (0.15, 0.07) for 4F-DPA. Furthermore, it was demonstrated that
these nF-DPAs serve as excellent host materials for 4,40-Bis[4-(di-p-tolylamino)styryl]biphenyl (DPAVBi).
Especially, OLEDs using 2F-DPA as the fluorescent host exhibit pure blue emission with CIE coordinates
of (0.15, 0.30), high luminance over 20 000 cd m2, high current efficiency of 9.6 cd A1, and high
external quantum efficiency of 5.2%. Our new fluorinated derivatives show potential applications for
highly efficient blue OLEDs.