Photo- and electroluminescent properties of bithiophene disubstituted 1,3,4-thiadiazoles and their application as active components in organic light emitting diodes

•Solution processable organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs).•Bithiophene disubstituted 1,3,4-thiadiazoles as a new class of bluish-green emitters.•Effective guest–host electroluminescent systems for application in OLEDs.

Photo- and electroluminescence of five bithiophene disubstituted 1,3,4-thiadiazoles, constituting a new class of solution processable materials for organic opto-electronics, were studied. It was found that the introduction of alkyl solubilizing substituents bathochromically shifted the photo- and electroluminescence bands. The most pronounced effect was observed for the substitution at the Cα position which changed the emitting light color from bluish to green. All five derivatives were tested in host/guest type organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) with either poly(N-vinylcarbazole) (PVK) or poly(N-vinylcarbazole) + 2-tert-butylphenyl-5-biphenyl-1,3,4-oxadiazole (PVK + PBD) matrices. The latter matrix turned out especially well suited for these guest molecules yielding devices of varying color coordinates. The best luminance (750 cd/m2) was measured for 2,5-bis(5′-octyl-2,2′-bithiophene-5-yl)-1,3,4-thiadiazole with the luminous efficiency exceeding 0.4 cd/A.

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