Two novel bipolar host materials, namely 3,5-bis(4-(9H-carbazol-9-yl)pheny1)-1,2,4-oxadiazole (pCzmOXD) and 3,5-bis(3-(9H-carbazol-9-yl)pheny1)-1,2,4-oxadiazole (mCzmOXD) were designed and synthesized, by incorporating a new block 1,2,4-oxadiazole as the n-type moiety and changing its linking pattern with carbazole. As expected, high triplet energy (over 2.81 eV) for mCzmOXD was achieved due to the intrinsic meta-linkage of 1,2,4-oxadiazole. When both materials were applied in blue phosphorescent organic light-emitting diodes, good performance of 13.0 cd A(-1)/16.0 cd A(-1) were achieved for pCzmOXD and mCzmOXD in iridium(III) bis[(4, 6 - difluorophenyl)pyridinato - N, C-2'] picolinate (Flrpic)-based devices, respectively. Crown Copyright (C) 2013 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.