A series of short axially symmetrically 1,3,6,8-tetrasubstituted pyrene-based green and blue emitters with 4-tert-butylphenyl and arylamine attachments

• A series of short axially symmetrically pyrenes (4a–4c) were synthesized.
• These compounds show high absolute ΦFs in dichloromethane and film states.
• The various arylamines on pyrene can tune the electronic structures of the compounds.
• Solution-processed non-doped green and blue OLEDs were investigated.

A series of short axially symmetrically 1,3,6,8-tetrasubstituted pyrene-based derivatives (4a–4c) with two 4-tert-butylphenyl segments at 1,8-positions and two hole-transporting arylamine attachments at 3,6-sites of pyrene core were designed and synthesized based on stepwise synthetic strategy. These compounds were structurally characterized and their photoelectric properties were investigated by spectroscopy, electrochemical and theoretical studies. The results show that the incorporation of different arylamine units into pyrene core can tune the electronic structures of the compounds, and polysubstituted configuration of pyrene can effectively suppress the intermolecular π–π interactions and consequently leads to relatively high absolute fluorescence quantum efficiencies. These compounds exhibit high thermal stability and can form morphologically stable amorphous thin films with glass transition temperature in the range of 156–189 °C. Solution-processed non-doped green and blue organic light-emitting diodes with maximum luminance efficiencies 4.14 cd A−1 and 2.41 cd A−1 were achieved for 4b and 4c, respectively.

A series of short axially symmetrically 1,3,6,8-tetrasubstituted pyrene-based derivatives (4a–4c) with two different functional attachments at 1,8- and 3,6-positions were synthesized. These compounds exhibit excellent photoelectric properties and solution-processed OLEDs with two representative compounds as non-doped emitting layer were investigated.Figure optionsDownload as PowerPoint slide