Efficient Ultraviolet Organic Light-Emitting Diodes with a CIEy of 0.04 and Negligible-Efficiency Roll-Off

Organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) with ultraviolet (UV) emission (λ_EL ≤ 400 nm) have attracted special attention in commercial and civil fields owing to their special functions. Nevertheless, the lack of high-quality ultraviolet emitters restricts the practical application of UV OLEDs. Herein, a novel organic molecule with desirable UV emission, 2Na-CzCN, is developed for UV OLEDs. Theoretical investigation indicates that it is equipped with hybridized local and charge-transfer (HLCT) characteristics, which is in favor of the high-lying reverse intersystem crossing (RISC) process, thus remarkably boosting the exciton utilization in electroluminescence (EL). Significantly, the nondoped device derived from the 2Na-CzCN emitter exhibits an EL emission peak of 398 nm with a maximum external quantum efficiency (EQE) of 5.92%, which represents the record-high result among nondoped UV OLEDs. The doped UV OLED of 2Na-CzCN radiates robust UV emission at a peak of 392 nm with a maximum EQE of 6.15%. Coupled with the narrow full width at half-maximum (FWHM) of the EL spectra, desirable color purities with Commission Internationale de l'Eclairage (CIE) coordinates of (0.15, 0.06) and (0.16, 0.04) for nondoped and doped OLEDs are presented, respectively. Additionally, the potential of 2Na-CzCN adopted as the host material is demonstrated with phosphorescent OLEDs (PhOLEDs), and all of the devices show good EL performances with low-efficiency roll-offs. An orange PhOLED with 2Na-CzCN acquires a maximum current and external quantum efficiency of 84.9 cd A^-1 and 25.3%, respectively. These findings may pave an avenue for the development of high-performance UV emitters.