White light emitting single polymer from aggregation enhanced emission: a strategy through supramolecular assembly

Abstract

Aggregation induced emission enhancement (AIEE) is widely regarded as an efficient tool to offset the problem of aggregation caused quenching (ACQ) in luminogens. The ACQ phenomenon in small organic molecules and polymers is detrimental to the performance of OLEDs. Efficient pure white electroluminescent polymers, obtained by the copolymerization of 9,9-dihexylfluorene as a blue host with (E)-2,7-dibromo-9H-fluoren-9-yl-2-cyano-3-(4-(dimethylamino)phenyl) acrylate (FCP) as a yellow emitting covalent dopant with AIEE properties on the main chain of the copolymers, have been designed and synthesized. White light emission was achieved in copolymer FCP 2.5, which contained 2.5% of the AIEE luminogen. Interestingly the copolymers exhibited an enhanced emission upon aggregation even at low compositions of FCP. The enhanced emission in the copolymers is attributed to the supramolecular assembly of the polymeric chains. Density functional theory (DFT) and time-dependent density functional theory (TD-DFT) investigations of the monomer and copolymers of FCP revealed the presence of an intramolecular charge transfer (ICT) transition between dimethylamine and the cyanoacrylic acid unit. OLEDs were fabricated using a device with a ITO/PEDOT:PSS/EML/Al structure. White light emitting diodes were fabricated from FCP 2.5 as the emissive layer (EML) and elicited a white electroluminescence with Commission Internationale de l'Eclairage (CIE) coordinate values of (0.33, 0.34). They exhibited a maximum brightness of nearly 9332 cd m⁻², a power efficiency of 4.13 lm W⁻¹ and a luminous efficiency of 6.34 cd A⁻¹. Interestingly, the supramolecular ordering in FCP 2.5 considerably reduces the charge trapping which results in a reproducible white light emission.