Dendron-functionalized perylenes for red luminescent materials

This paper presents a novel series of dendrimers containing perylene diimide cores, Frechet-type poly(arylether) dendrons, and peripheral functional units such as hole-transporting groups (carbazole) via a convergent synthetic approach with three generation. The higher generation dendrimer has an obvious site-isolation effect or dilution effect of dendrons, which results in a relatively small red-shift of absorption and emission spectra when they form a solid thin film for applications. The interactions between peripheral units and perylene diimide core in the dendrimers are studied by fluorescence spectra. The steady-state fluorescence shows there is no effective Forster intramolecular energy transfer. DSC results indicate that the incorporation of Frechet-type poly(arylether) dendrons can improve the amorphous property and increase glass transition temperature (T,). The preliminary EL results with a single-layer architecture demonstrate that these dendrimers could be utilized as a promising kind of active red luminescent emitters.