Synthesis, aggregation-induced emission and electroluminescence properties of a novel compound containing tetraphenylethene, carbazole and dimesitylboron moieties

Abstract

In this paper, a new aggregation-induced emission (AIE)-active compound, 1,2-bis(4-(3,6-bis(dimesitylboranyl)-9H-carbazol-9-yl)phenyl)-1,2-diphenylethene (BBDCZPD), has been successfully synthesized. The building block of BBDCZPD comprises tetraphenylethene as the skeleton, carbazole as the hole-transporting moiety and dimesitylboron as the electron-transporting moiety. Its structure is fully characterized using elemental analysis, mass spectrometry and proton nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. The thermal, electrochemical and photophysical properties of BBDCZPD are studied using thermal analysis, electrochemical methods, UV-vis absorption spectroscopy and fluorescence spectroscopy, respectively. The results show that BBDCZPD exhibits excellent thermal stability and electrochemical stability as well as AIE properties. Moreover, a multilayer organic light-emitting diode (OLED) device is fabricated by using BBDCZPD as the non-doped emitter which displays good electroluminescence performances with a turn-on voltage of 5.2 V, a maximum luminance of 5406 cd m⁻² and a maximum luminance efficiency of 5.34 cd A⁻¹. The electroluminescence properties of BBDCZPD demonstrate its potential application in OLEDs.