Degradation of Hole Transport Materials via Exciton-Driven Cyclization Bruce M. Bell Michael B. Clark David D. Devore Timothy S. De Vries Robert D. Froese Kaitlyn C. Gray David H. K. Jackson T. F. Kuech Hong-Yeop Na Kenneth L. Kearns Kyung-Joo Lee Sukrit Mukhopadhyay Aaron A. Rachford Liam P. Spencer W. H. Hunter Woodward 10.1021/acsami.7b00208.s001 https://acs.figshare.com/articles/journal_contribution/Degradation_of_Hole_Transport_Materials_via_Exciton-Driven_Cyclization/4823371 Organic light-emitting diode (OLED) displays have been an active and intense area of research for well over a decade and have now reached commercial success for displays from cell phones to large format televisions. A more thorough understanding of the many different potential degradation modes which cause OLED device failure will be necessary to develop the next generation of OLED materials, improve device lifetime, and to ultimately improve the cost vs performance ratio. Each of the different organic layers in an OLED device can be susceptible to unique decomposition pathways, however stability toward excitons is critical for emissive layer (EML) materials as well as any layer near the recombination zone. This study will specifically focus on degradation modes within the hole transport layer (HTL) with the goal being to identify the general decomposition paths occurring in an operating device and use this information to design new derivatives which can block these pathways. Through post-mortem analyses of several aged OLED devices, an apparently common intramolecular cyclization pathway has been identified that was not previously reported for arylamine-containing HTL materials and that operates parallel to but faster than the previously described fragmentation pathways. 2017-03-28 00:00:00 cause OLED device failure EML Hole Transport Materials degradation modes decomposition intramolecular cyclization pathway Exciton-Driven Cyclization Organic light-emitting diode arylamine-containing HTL materials hole transport layer cost vs performance ratio display