Highly thermally-stable 4,4′-bis(4″-triphenylsilylphenyl)-1,1′- binaphthalene as the ultraviolet amplified spontaneous emitter, efficient host and deep-blue emitting material

•A highly thermal stability and functional versatility material was synthesized.•An ultraviolet lasing dye with an ASE threshold of 20 μJ/pulse.•It is adequate to the role of the host material compared with common host material.•Extremely stable colour-tunable blue organic light-emitting devices were obtained.

We report herein the synthesis and characterization of an efficient versatile binaphthyl derivative, 4,4′-bis(4″-triphenylsilylphenyl)-1,1′-binaphthalene (SiBN) with a high glass transition temperature of 159.3 °C. Its role as a lasing dye was demonstrated by the amplified spontaneous emission, which exhibited an ultraviolet peak of 397 nm with a low threshold of 20 μJ/pulse. Meanwhile, the lasing film and blue electroluminescent device employing this novel binaphthyl derivative as the host showed superior performances to the reference based on the conventional host 4,4′-bis(carbazol-9-yl)biphenyl. Finally, extremely stable colour-tunable deep-blue (436 nm/472 nm) organic electroluminescent devices based on SiBN were demonstrated with very high brightness (>7521.2 cd/m2) and high external quantum efficiencies (1.90% for 436 nm and 4.66% for 472 nm emission). The development of such functional versatility materials will be an effective method for reducing the cost of organic photoelectric devices.

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