A new organic/inorganic electroluminescent material with a silsesquioxane core Original Research Article

This paper describes a new polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (POSS)-based blue-light electroluminescent nanoparticle, octakis[N-(9-ethyl-9H-carbazol-3-yl)undecanamide-11-dimethylsiloxy]silsesquioxane (POSS-C11-Cz), which contains eight carbazole chromophore arms, synthesized through the hydrosilation reaction of octakis(dimethylsiloxy)silsesquioxane with the terminal olefin Cz-C11ene. POSS-C11-Cz exhibits good thermal and electrochemical stabilities and good film-forming properties. The optical and photoluminescence spectra of POSS-C11-Cz in solution and in the solid state indicate a reduction in the degrees of aggregation and excimer formation because inter-chain interactions were prohibited by the bulky POSS core. Moreover, photoluminescence spectra of a POSS-C11-Cz (3 wt.%)/polyfluorene (97 wt.%) blend revealed that the color was stable after heating the sample at 200 °C for 5 h; in contrast, the pure polyfluorene exhibited a significant green emission at 530 nm. A triple-layer device based on this blend exhibited higher maximum brightness and luminance efficiencies relative to those of the pure polyfluorene. Thus, the organic/inorganic POSS-C11-Cz/polyfluorene blend has potential for use in polymeric light-emitting diodes because of its improved thermal and optoelectronic characteristics.