Recent years have brought remarkable developments in white light emitting devices (WLEDs) and white organic light-emitting devices (WOLEDs). However, their efficiency, CIE values, CRI and lifetime are still not ideal. This review covers detailed discussion about syntheses of organometallic complexes, inorganic phosphors and quantum dots used in WLEDs, WOLEDs and their electroluminescent properties until December 2007.

Development of white light emitting materials has been an interesting area for scientists and scientists have developed many organic, polymer and inorganic materials for white electroluminescent devices. Among them, single component small molecules gave best results in terms of efficiency, simplicity of device fabrication, and CIE values. Therefore, this review covers detailed discussion about syntheses of small compounds used in white organic light emitting devices until 2007.

White emission is important for applying organic EL devices to full-color flat panel display and backlight for liquid crystal display. In order to obtain white emission, the use of a light-emitting material which shows the white emission by itself is advantageous for these applications because of its high reliability and productivity. A chelate-metal complex such as zinc bis(2-(2-hydroxyphenyl) benzothiazolate) (Zn(BTZ)2 was known to emit white light with a broad electroluminescence. In this study, the electroluminescent characteristics of Be(BTZ)2 and Mg(BTZ)2, as well as Zn(BTS)2 were investigated using organic electroluminescent devices with the structure of ITO/TPD/ Be(BTZ)2, Mg(BTZ)2, or Zn(BTZ)2/Al. It was found that the device containing Be(BTZ)2 showed the highest power efficiency.