Application of exciplex in the fabrication of white organic light emitting devices with mixed fluorescent and phosphorescent layers

In this study, a highly efficient fluorescent/phosphorescent white organic light-emitting device (WOLED) was fabricated using exciplex light emission. The hole-transport material 4,4',4''-tris(N-carbazolyl)triphenylamine (TCTA), and electron-transport material, 4,7-diphenyl-1,10-phenanthroline (Bphen), were mixed to afford a blue-emitting exciplex. The WOLED was fabricated with a yellow phosphorescent dye, Ir(III) bis(4-phenylthieno [3,2-c] pyridinato-N,C^2') acetylacetonate (PO-01), combined with the exciplex. In this structure, the energy can be efficiently transferred from the blend layer to the yellow phosphorescent dye, thus improving the efficiency of the utilization of the triplet exciton. The maximum power efficiency of the WOLED reached a value 9.03 lm/W with an external quantum efficiency of 4.3%. The Commission Internationale de I'Eclairage (CIE) color coordinates (x,y) of the device were from (0.39, 0.45) to (0.27, 0.31), with a voltage range of 4–9 V. - Highlights: • An exciplex/phosphorescence hybrid white OLED was fabricated for the first time with blue/orange complementary emitters. • By using exciplex as the blue emitter, non-radiative triplet-states on the exciplex can be harvested for light-emission by transferring them to low triplet-state phosphors