Improvement of Efficiency in -Conjugated Polymer Based on Phenothiazine by Introduction of Oxadiazole Pendant as a Side Chain

A new $\pi$-conjugated polymer, poly[(2-methoxy-(5-(2-(4-oxyphenyl)-5-phenyl-1,3,4-oxadiazole)-hexyloxy))-1,4-pheny1ene-1,2-etheny1ene-alt-(10-hexyl-3,7-phenothiazine )-1,2-ethenylene] (PTOXDPPV), was synthesized by the Heck coupling reaction. The electron transporting unit, conjugated 1,3,4-oxadiazo1e (OXD), is attached on the main chain via linear 1,6-hexamethylenedioxy chain. The band gap and photoluminescence (PL) maximum of PTOXDPPV are 2.35 eV and 565 nm, respectively. These values are very close to those of po1y[(2,5-didecyloxy-1,4-phenylene-1,2-etheny1ene )-alt-(l0-hexyl-3,7-phenothiazine)-1,2-ethenylene] (PTPPV), which does not have OXD pendant. The estimated HOMO energy level of PTOXDPPV was -4.98 eV, which is very close to that of PTPPV (-4.91 eV). The maximum wavelength of EL device based on PTOXDPPV and PTPPV appeared at 587 and 577 nm, respectively. In the PL and EL spectrum, the emission from OXD pendant was not observed. This indicates that the energy transfer from OXD pendants to main chain is occurred completely. The EL device based on PTOXD-PPV (ITO/PEDOT/PTOXDPPV/AI) has an efficiency of 0.033 cd/A, which is significantly higher than the device based on PTPPV (ITO/PEDOT/PTPPV/AI) ($4.28{\times}10^{-3}\;cd/A$). From the results, we confirm that the OXD pendants in PTOXDPPV facilitate hole-electron recombination processes in the emissive layer effectively.