Photoactive amorphous molecular materials based on bisquinoline diamines and their synthesis by Friedländer condensation reaction

•Synthesis of bisquinoline diamines as amorphous molecular materials.•Materials with high glass transition temperatures and high thermal stabilities.•Light emission with narrow full-widths at half-maxima (fwhm).•Solution high quantum efficiencies.

A new class of bisquinoline diamines prepared by Friedländer condensation reaction are reported showing stable amorphous state with high glass transition temperatures up to 150 °C and high thermal stabilities >370 °C. Additionally, they show excellent fluorescent properties in the blue, green and yellow region of visible light in both solution and solid states. They show narrow full-widths at half-maxima in the range of 52–73 nm in various organic solvents. Their solution quantum efficiencies are relatively high in the range of 27–38%. The absorption spectra obtained from time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT) using optimized geometry correlated well with the experimental data. From the frontier molecular orbital studies, the electronic transitions involved possesses π–π* character. These materials could be useful for high-performance applications in opto- and microelectronic fields either by further chemical transformations of these diamines for amorphous molecular materials or by their polymerization reactions to create charge transporting materials.

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