Friedel-Crafts arylmethylation: A simple approach to synthesize bipolar host materials for efficient electroluminescence

• Published in: Organic electronics Vol. 38; pp. 370 - 378
• Main Authors: Ou, Chang-Jin, Lin, Jin-Yi, Mao, Jie, Chu, Shuang-Quan, Zhao, Yu, Xie, Ling-Hai, Cao, Hong-Tao, Zhang, Xin-Wen, Wei, Ying, Huang, Wei
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier B.V 01.11.2016
• Subjects: Bipolar host materials; Friedel-Crafts arylmethylation; Solution process; Sulfone; Bipolar host materials; Friedel-Crafts arylmethylation; Sulfone; Solution process
• ISSN: 1566-1199; 1878-5530
• DOI: 10.1016/j.orgel.2016.08.018

In order to simplify the synthesis of bipolar host materials of OLEDs, a facile synthetic approach was developed and a series of sulfone-contained bipolar host materials were synthesized via mild one-step Friedel-Crafts arylmethylation. Due to π-conjugate-interrupted connection between donor moiety and sulfone moiety, those materials keep high triplet energy and separate the HOMO and LUMO levels. Furthermore, the introduction of sulfone group can significantly lower LUMO level. Based on newly synthesized sulfone-based bipolar host materials, efficient solution-processed sky-blue phosphorescent OLEDs were fabricated with high current efficiency of 16.5 cd/A. Our results demonstrate Friedel-Crafts arylmethylation is powerful synthetic strategy to construct bipolar host materials. [Display omitted] •A series of sulfone-contained bipolar host materials were synthesized via mild one-step Friedel-Crafts alkylation.•The introduction of sulfone group can keep high triplet energy, while tune the distribution of frontier orbitals.•Efficient solution-processed blue phosphorescent OLEDs were fabricated with high current efficiency of 16.5 cd/A.