Efficient blue lighting materials based on truxene-cored anthracene derivatives for electroluminescent devices

A new series of anthracene derivatives containing a truxene moiety as the core have been synthesized and characterized. They emit in the blue region with excellent solution fluorescence quantum yields and possess high thermal decomposition temperature (T-d>458 degrees C). Typical electroluminescence performance was demonstrated by 2-[10-(4-(1-napthenyl)phenyl)anthracene-9-yl]-5,5',10,10',15,15'-hexaethyltruxene (NPAT) as the blue lighting material in the OLED with structure of ITO/CFx/NPAT/TPBI or Alq(3)/LiF/Al, where TPBI and Alq(3) are 1,3,5-tri(N-phenylbenzimidazol-2-yl)-benzene and tris(8-hydroxyquinolinato) aluminum, respectively. Additionally, the effects of the different thickness of the different electron transporting layers on the device performance were investigated. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.