White-light-emitting diodes based on iridium complexes via efficient energy transfer from a conjugated polymer

Efficient white-light-emitting diodes (WLEDs) have been developed using a polyfluorene-type blue-emitting conjugated polymer doped with green and red phosphorescent dyes. The emission spectrum of the conjugated polymer, which has a very high luminescent efficiency, shows a large spectral overlap with the absorbance of green and red iridium complexes. Also, efficient energy transfer from the conjugated polymer to the iridium complexes is observed. Poly(N-vinyl carbazole) is used to improve the miscibility between conjugated polymer and iridium complexes because of their poor chemical compatibility and phase separation. A white emission spectrum is easily obtained by varying the contents of the three materials and controlling the phase morphology. Moreover, these WLEDs show a voltage-independent electroluminescence owing to the threshold and driving voltage of the three materials being similar as a result of energy transfer.