Synthesis of thermal-stable and photo-crosslinkable polyfluorenes for the applications of polymer light-emitting diodes

Three polyfluorene derivatives which have oxetane-containing phenyl group at C-9 position were synthesized via the palladium-catalyzed Suzuki-coupling reaction. The synthesized polymers PFB, PFG, and PFR emit blue, green, and red light, respectively. A double-layer device with the configuration of ITO/PEDOT/polymer/Ca/Al using PFB as the active layer showed a threshold voltage of 5 V, a maximum brightness of 2030 cd/m(2), and a maximum current efficiency of 0.35 cd/A. Using PFG as the active layer, the device exhibited a threshold voltage of 6 V, a maximum brightness of 6447 cd/m(2), and a maximum current efficiency of 1.27 cd/A. Using PFR as the active layer, the device showed a threshold voltage of 4 V, a maximum brightness of 2135 cd/m(2), and a maximum current efficiency of 0.16 cd/A. Better electroluminescent performance was also found based on different design of device structures. Due to photo-crosslinking property of oxetane groups, the UV-exposed thin films are insoluble in common organic solvents. A device comprised of blue, green, and red-emissive pixels was successfully fabricated by spin-coating and photo-lithographic processes. In addition, a white light-emitting device with CIE coordinate of (0.34, 0.33) was achieved by blending PFR into a host material PFB as the active layer. (C) 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 48: 516-524, 2010