Tetrasubstituted-pyrene derivatives for electroluminescent application

•Tetrasubstituted-pyrenes were synthesized and characterized.•These materials can be used as an emitting layer in OLEDs with good performance.•Pyrene–fluorene containing compounds are ambipolar carrier transport.

Tetrasubstituted-pyrenes containing peripheral diarylamines (1–4) or fluorenes (5–6) have been synthesized. These compounds are highly fluorescent and possess high morphological stability and thermal stability. Compounds containing peripheral arylamines (1–3) can be used as the hole-transport and green-emitting materials for two-layered electroluminescent devices. Compounds with peripheral fluorenes (5–6) are efficient blue emitters and exhibit ambipolar carrier-transport characteristics with high electron mobilities (10−3–10−2 cm2/V s) and high hole mobilities (>10−3 cm2/V s). Non-doped blue-emitting devices with promising electroluminescent performance (i.e., high efficiency and narrow/saturated emission) can be achieved using fluorene–substituted pyrenes as either the hole-transport/emitting layer or the electron-transport/emitting layer in the two-layered devices.

Graphical abstractFigure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload as PowerPoint slide