Understanding charge transport in Ir(ppy)₃:CBP OLED films

Ir(ppy)₃:CBP blends have been widely studied as the emissive layer in organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs), yet crucial questions about charge transport within the layer remain unaddressed. Recent molecular dynamics simulations show that the Ir(ppy)₃ molecules are not isolated from each other, but at concentrations of as low as 5 wt. % can be part of connected pathways. Such connectivity raises the question of how the iridium(iii) complexes contribute to long-range charge transport in the blend. We implement a kinetic Monte Carlo transport model to probe the guest concentration dependence of charge mobility and show that distinct minima appear at approximately 10 wt. % Ir(ppy)₃ due to an increased number of trap states that can include interconnected complexes within the blend film. The depth of the minima is shown to be dependent on the electric field and to vary between electrons and holes due to their different trapping depths arising from the different ionization potentials and electron affinities of the guest and host molecules. Typical guest-host OLEDs use a guest concentration below 10 wt. % to avoid triplet-triplet annihilation, so these results suggest that optimal device performance is achieved when there is significant charge trapping on the iridium(iii) complex guest molecules and minimum interactions of the emissive chromophores that can lead to triplet-triplet annihilation.