This application relates to new triarylamine derivatives provided with special space-filling wing groups, and their use as hole transfer material in electrophotographic and electroluminescent devices.
Electrophotographic and electroluminescent devices and the use of triarylamine derivatives, such as triarylamine dimers and triarylamine tetramers, have been known for a long time.
Currently, tris(-8-hydroxychinolino)-aluminium is used as preferred luminescent material, the electroluminescence of which has been known since 1965. This metal chelate complex, which, in some cases, can be doped with coumarin, luminesces in a green colour, and the metal used can also be beryllium or gallium.
Although in the beginning a relatively high turn-on voltage of more than 10 volts was required, the necessary voltage was able to be reduced to less than 10 volts by arranging an additional hole transport layer between the anode and the luminescent layer.
Apart from phthalocyanines and biphenylyl oxadiazol derivatives, preferred hole transfer materials used are N,N′-diphenyl-N,N′-bis(m-tolyl)-benzidine (TPD) and N,N′-diphenyl-N,N′-di-naphth-1-yl-benzidine (α-NPD).
Due to their good charge transfer characteristics, the use of triarylamine derivatives, particularly triarylamine dimers, in electrophotographic and electroluminescent applications has been known for a long time. Especially N,N′-bis(-4′-N,N-diphenylamino-biphenylyl))-N,N′-diphenyl-benzidine (EP0650955A1) and N,N′-bis(-4′(-N-phenyl-N-naphth-1 yl-amino-biphenylyl))-N,N′-diphenyl-benzidine (JP2000260572) are used, either alone or combined with TPD or α-NPD in a double layer structure.
In general, the service life and the efficiency, or its development as time passes, of the known electroluminescent devices do not meet the requirements of practice and need to be improved. The film forming characteristics of the charge transfer materials used and their morphological stability within a binder layer are also unsatisfactory. In particular, the tendency of a layer containing the aforesaid charge transfer materials to form crystallization centres within the said layer during the service life of an electroluminescent device or arrangement largely depends on the glass transition temperature of the materials used. The higher the glass transition temperature the lower is, in general, the recrystallization tendency at a given temperature, while at the same time the speed of crystallization below the glass transition temperature is extremely low. Therefore, arrangements manufactured using compounds whose glass transition temperature is high can be expected to have a high permissible working temperature.
A high glass transition temperature is highly favoured by the existence of space-filling, sterically demanding groups.
The present application provides new compounds which are suitable as charge transfer materials and whose glass transition temperatures are in the range from 100° C., preferably 150° C., to 250° C. thus extending the operative range of the electroluminescent arrangements manufactured using the aforesaid compounds to temperatures ranging from 100° C. to approx. 200° C.
According to one embodiment, the new triarylamine derivatives correspond to the general formula 1
where the aromatic or heteroaromatic units X1 through X4, which are the same or different, are phenyl, naphthyl, anthracenyl, phenanthrenyl, pyrenyl, pyridyl or chinolyl, and where R10, R11, R12 and R13, which are the same or different, have the meaning of H, C1, to C6 alkyl, cycloalkyl, C2 to C4 alkenyl, C1, to C4 alkoxy, C1 to C4 di-alkylamino, diarylamino, halogen, hydroxy, phenyl, naphthyl or pyridyl,
Preferred triarylamine derivatives are those according to formula 1, where n is a whole number between 1 and 4, particularly 1 or 2.
Preferred rests R1 through R4 in formula 1 have the meaning of phenyl, bi-phenylyl, methylphenyl, naphthyl, fluorenyl, triarylmethyl-aryl or triarylsilyl-aryl.
Preferred rests R5 through R9, which can be the same or different, have the meaning of methyl or phenyl.
In another embodiment of the invention, the rests R5 and R6 form a spiro alkane ring together with the C atom they are bonded to.
Preferred rests R20 through R27, which can be the same or different, are hydrogen, methyl or phenyl.
If the structures Ar include at least one unit according to formula 3, it is preferred that at least one of the rests R1 through R4 be a triarylsilyl-aryl unit or a substituted triarylmethyl-aryl unit according to formula 4.
If all the structures Ar consist of units according to formula 2, it is preferred that at least one of the rests R1 through R4 be
The rests R10 through R13 are preferably H, phenyl, C1 to C3 alkyl, C1 to C3 alkoxy or halogen. Methyl or phenyl are particularly preferred. The halogen is preferably F or Cl.
A preferred embodiment of the invention relates to triarylamine derivatives according to the general formula
The application further relates to an organic electroluminescent device having at least one hole transport layer and one luminescent layer, wherein at least one hole transport layer contains a triarylamine derivative according to formula 1.
Another embodiment consists in that the organic electroluminescent device comprises a luminescent layer containing a triarylamine derivative according to formula 1.
The application also relates to the use of triarylamine derivatives according to formula 1 as hole transfer substance or luminescent substance in an organic electroluminescent device, and the use of triarylamine derivatives according to formula 1 as hole transfer substance in an electrophotographic arrangement.
Typically, an electrophotographic device has the following structure. A charge generation layer is arranged above an electrically conductive metal layer, which can either be applied onto a flexible substrate or consist of an aluminium drum, which charge generation layer has the task of injecting positive charge carriers into the charge transfer layer during exposure. The arrangement is charged electrostatically up to several hundred volts before exposure. The charge generation layer and the charge transfer layer are typically between 15 and 25 μm thick, and under the influence of the high field strength caused by the aforesaid process, the positive charge carriers (electron “holes”) injected move towards the negatively charged charge transfer layer thus bringing about a discharge of the surface in those areas onto which light has fallen. In the subsequent steps of an electrophotographic cycle, toner is applied onto the surface which is charged (or discharged) according to the picture, the toner is transferred onto a printing material, if necessary, fixed on the aforesaid material, and finally excess toner and the residual charge are removed.
An electroluminescent device, in principle, consists of one or more charge transfer layer(s) which contain(s) an organic compound and is/are arranged between two electrodes of which at least one is transparent. If a voltage is applied, the metal electrode (mostly Ca, Mg or Al, often in combination with silver), whose work function is low, injects electrons, and the opposite electrode injects holes into the organic layer, which electrons and holes combine to form singlet excitons. The latter return to their normal state after a short while thereby emitting light.
An additional separation of the electron transfer layer and the electroluminescent layer brings about an increase in quantum efficiency. At the same time, the electroluminescent layer can be selected to be very thin. As the flourescent material can be replaced regardless of its electron transfer behaviour, the emission wavelength can be set in the whole visible spectral range in a targeted manner.
It is also possible to split the hole transport layer into two partial layers which differ in composition.
According to one embodiemnt, the organic electroluminescent device consists of a combination of layers consisting of a cathode, an electroluminescent layer containing an organic compound, and an anode, the organic compound contained in the hole transport layer being a triarylamine derivative according to the general formula 1.
A preferred structure consists of the following layers:
The electroluminescent layer, which contains tris(-8-hydroxychinolino)-aluminium according to the formula
Typical examples of triarylamine derivatives according to the general formula 1 are:
The following tables 1 and 2 indicate preferred embodiments for the structural units Ar and the rests Rx (R1 through R4) according to formula 1.
Based on the above tables for Ar and Rx, the following tables 3, 4 and 5 indicate the composition of preferred specific example compounds according to the general formula 1 for different n values.
The new compounds are synthesized according to methods known per se, e.g. according to the Ullmann Synthesis or by means of reaction processes which use noble metal catalysts and are based on suitable primary and secondary amines and (according to formulas 2 and 3) dihalogen-biphenyls, dihalogen-dibenzofurans, dihalogen-dibenzothiophenes, dihalogencarbazols or dihalogen-dibenzosilols, or on suitable tertiary halogen-biphenyl-4-yl-amines and (according to formulas 2 or 3) heteroanalogous benzidine derivatives.
The Ullmann Synthesis is a condensation reaction in which aryl halogenides, preferably aryl iodides, react with suitable substrates to form C arylation products or N arylation products at temperatures ranging from 100° C. to 300° C. and using Cu or Cu bronze as catalyst, wherein functionally substituted aryl halogenides can also be reacted if sensitive groups are selectively protected.
If two hole transport layers arranged one after the other are used, at least one layer contains triarylamine derivatives according to formula 1, preferably one or more compound(s) 6-24.
If an additional electron transfer layer is used, it contains known electron transfer materials, e.g. bis(-aminophenyl)-1,3,4-oxadiazols, triazols or dithiolene derivatives.
The use of hole transfer materials according to formulas 6 through 24 brings about a high dark conductivity of the layers and thus a low turn-on voltage of less than 6 volts, which results in a reduction of the thermal stress exerted on the device. At the same time, the hole transfer materials used in embodiments of the present devices have a high glass transition temperature of more than 150° C. up to 250° C. and thus a very low tendency to recrystallize in the layer. Due to the aforesaid characteristics and due to the chemical structure of these relatively large molecules, layers produced of these substances are very stable, no matter whether they contain binder or not, which enables the common spin-coating technique to be used.
Layers applied by means of vacuum metallization are free from structural defective spots and have a high transparency in the visual spectral range. The aforesaid characteristics enable new organic electroluminescent devices to be produced, which have a high luminance (>10,000 cd/m2) and, at the same time, a considerably improved long-term stability (>10,000 hours). The working range of the aforesaid devices is in the temperature range from 100 to 200° C., preferably 120 to 200° C., particularly 120 to 150° C.
The following examples are intended to illustrate the present invention without limiting it in any way:
Production of N,N′-bis-(4′-(N-triphenylmethyl)-phenyl)-N-naphth-1-yl-amino)-bi-phenylyl)-N,N′-bisphenyl-2,7-amino-9-phenylcarbazol (formula 23)
A glass apparatus consisting of a 500 ml three-necked flask which is provided with a reflux condenser, a magnetic stirrer, a thermometer and a gas inlet pipe is heated at a temperature of 120° C. for 2 hours in order to remove the water adherent to the glass walls.
In a nitrogen atmosphere, 160 ml o-xylol which has been dried over Na and swept with N2 is supplied into the apparatus. 6.3 mg palladium acetate and 5.2 ml of a 1% solution of tri-tert.-butylphosphine in dry o-xylol are added while stirring, which results in the catalyst complex being formed.
12.9 g sodium-tert.-butylate, 23.8 g 2,7-dianilino-N-phenylcarbazol and 69.1 g N-triphenylmethyl-phenyl-N-naphth-1-yl-(4-bromobiphenylyl)-amine are added into the clear yellow solution produced.
The nitrogen atmosphere is maintained and the flask's content is heated up to 120° C. in an oil bath while stirring. NaBr starts to precipitate after approx. 30 min. The mixture is left to react for 3 hours at a temperature of 120° C. Subsequently, the flask's content is diluted to twice its volume by adding toluol, and then added into the tenfold amount of methanol while stirring. During the aforesaid step, the raw product is precipitated and can be separated by means of filtration.
In order to clean the raw product, it is re-precipitated out of dodecane and subsequently recrystallized out of DMF. Finally, the product is sublimed under an ultra-high vacuum (<10−5 torrs). In this way, approx. 30 g pure N,N′-bis-(4′-(N-tri-phenylmethyl)-phenyl)-N-naphth-1-yl-amino)-biphenylyl)-N,N′-bisphenyl-2,7-amino-N-phenylcarbazol is obtained. The Tg value measured was 190° C.
Production of N,N′-diphenyl-N,N′-bis-(4-triphenyl-methyl-phenyl)-amino-9-methyl-carbazol (formula 10)
In an apparatus as described in Example 1, 20.35 g 2,7-dianilino-9-methyl-carbazol and 49.4 g 4-bromophenyl-tri(-4-methylphenyl)-methane are reacted according to the procedure indicated in that same example using 12.9 g sodium-tert.-butylate as dehydrating base, 12.6 mg palladium acetate and 10.4 ml of a 1 % solution of tri-tert.-butylphosphine as catalyst.
The separation, processing and cleaning of the reaction product are carried out analogously to Example 1 too. In this way, approx. 17 g pure N,N′-diphenyl-amino-N,N′-bis-(4-(tri-4-methylphenyl)-methyl)-phenylamino-9-methyl-carbazol is obtained. The Tg value measured using a DSC measuring device is 159° C.
Production of N,N′-di-(triphenylsilyl-phenyl)-N,N′-diphenyl-benzidine (formula 7)
In an apparatus as described in Example 1, 14.2 g N,N′-diphenyl-benzidine and 34.9 g 4-bromophenyl-triphenyl-silane are reacted according to the procedure indicated in that same example using 12.9 g sodium-tert.-butylate as dehydrating base, 12.6 mg palladium acetate and 10.4 ml of a 1% solution of tri-tert.-butyl-phosphine as catalyst.
The reaction product is cleaned by means of re-crystallization out of xylol to which 5% silica gel have been added, and, in a second stage, by re-crystallization out of DMF. In this way, 16.5 g pure N,N′-di-(triphenylsilyl-phenyl)-N,N′-diphenyl-benzidine is obtained, whose glass transition temperature measured using DSC is 164° C.
Production of N-4-methylphenyl-N-(triphenylmethyl-phenyl)-N′-phenyl-N′-napth-1-yl-p,p′-benzidine (formula 12)
In the apparatus described in the above examples, 18.9 g bromobiphenylyl-phenyl-naphthyl-amine and 17.9 g trityl-methyl-diphenylamine are reacted in an analogous manner using 12.9 g sodium-tert.-butylate as dehydrating base, 12.6 mg palladium acetate and 10.4 ml of a 1 % solution of tri-tert.-butylphosphine as catalyst.
The reaction product is cleaned analogously to Example 1, wherein in a first stage a solvent mixture consisting of dodecane and xylol in a ratio of 4:1 and in a second stage a mixture of DMF and n-butanol in a ratio of 1:1 is used.
In this way, 20 g N-4-methylphenyl-N-(triphenylmethyl-phenyl)-N′-phenyl-N′-napth-1-yl-p,p′-benzidine is obtained. The glass transition temperature of the aforesaid compound is 151° C.
Production of N,N′-bis-(-7-(N-(4-triphenylmethyl-phenyl)-N-phenyl-amino)-dibenzo-thiophene-2-yl)-N,N′-diphenyl-benzidine (formula 21)
In the apparatus described above, 36.1 g N,N′-bis-(-7-bromo-dibenzo-thiophene-2-yl)-N,N′-diphenyl-benzidine are reacted with 34.6 g N-tritylphenyl-N-phenyl-amine. The compounds indicated in Example 1 are used as catalysts in the amounts indicated in that same example. The product is precipitated using methanol after a reaction time of 7 hours.
The raw product is cleaned by means of recrystallization out of xylol and by recrystallizing it out of DMF three times. In this way, 22 g N,N′-bis-(-7-(N-(4-tri-phenylmethyl-phenyl)-N-phenyl-amino)-dibenzothiophene-2-yl)-N,N′-diphenyl-benzidine is obtained whose glass transition temperature is 186° C.
Electroluminescent Arrangement
Under an ultra-high vacuum (10−8 hPa), a coating is applied onto a glass substrate coated with an indium tin oxide electrode (ITO). The aforesaid coating consists of a 55 nm thick hole transport layer consisting of the known starburst compound 25,
A voltage is applied between the ITO electrode and the aluminium cathode in order to determine the electroluminescence curve. The luminous efficiency is measured using a large-area Si photodiode which is arranged immediately below the glass substrate.
The following results were achieved:
Electroluminescent Arrangement
The same arrangement of layers is produced as in Example 6, except that N,N′-diphenyl-N,N′-bis-(4-triphenyl-methyl-phenyl)-amino-9-methyl-carbazol according to Example 2 is used in the emissive layer.
The following results are achieved:
The above examples show that substances produced according to the invention have glass transition temperatures of more than 150° C. In addition, the aforesaid substances showed an extremely low tendency to recrystallize in the amorphous layers whose production they were used for.
The invention has been described with reference to various specific and illustrative embodiments and techniques. However, it should be understood that many variations and modifications may be made while remaining within the spirit andscope of the invention.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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DE 102 03 328.5 | Jan 2002 | DE | national |
This application claims priority of International Patent Application PCT/DE02/04758, filed Dec. 19, 2002, and German Patent Application DE 102030328.5, filed Jan. 28, 2002, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.
Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | PCT/DE02/04758 | Dec 2002 | US |
Child | 10899522 | Jul 2004 | US |