Efficient solution-processed red organic light-emitting diode based on an electron-donating building block of pyrrolo[3,2-b]pyrrole.

Abstract An electron-rich moiety, pyrrolo[3,2-b]pyrrole, has been used as a new donor block in organic lighting-emitting diodes (OLEDs). Combined with a strong electron-withdrawing group of 2,1,3-benzothiadiazole, a novel red fluorophore BTZPP was synthesized. The solution-processed red-emitting device based on BTZPP showed encouraging performances with external quantum efficiency of up to 3.4%. This evidently indicates that the pyrrolo[3,2-b]pyrrole group can be a promising electron-donating moiety for enriching the material types and promoting the development of OLEDs. Graphical abstract Image 1 Highlights • Pyrrolo[3,2-b]pyrrole was used as a new donor block in OLEDs. • A novel red fluorophore BTZPP was synthesized basing on pyrrolo[3,2-b]pyrrole. • Using BTZPP, a simple OLED device was realized by an economical wet process. • The red emitting device demonstrated a high external quantum efficiency of 3.4%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]