Design and synthesis of 2-substituted-8-hydroxyquinline zinc complexes with hole-transporting ability for highly effective yellow-light emitters

Four multifunctional 8-hydroxyquinoline derivatives were designed and synthesized, their structures were identified by FT-IR, 1H NMR, MS and elemental analysis. Among them are (E)-2-(2-(9-(4-methoxyphenyl)-9H-carbazol-3-yl)vinyl) quinolato-zinc (1), (E)-2-(2-(9-p-tolyl-9H-carbazol-3-yl)vinyl)quinolato-zinc (2), (E)-2-(2-(9H-fluoren-2-yl)vinyl)quinolato-zinc (3), and (E)-2-(2-(phenanthren-9-yl)vinyl)quinolato-zinc (4). The electroluminescence (EL) and hole-transporting characteristics of these materials were investigated on four configurations: (A) ITO/2-TNATA/NPB/1, 2, 3 or 4/Alq3/LiF/Al; (B) ITO/2-TNATA/NPB/1, 2, 3 or 4/LiF/Al; (C) ITO/2-TNATA/1, 2, 3 or 4/Alq3/LiF/Al; and (D) ITO/2-TNATA/1 or 2/NPB/Alq3/LiF/Al. The maximum luminescence and current efficiencies of are 3556 cd m−2 (at 13 V) and 2.17 cd A−1 (at 9 V) for compound 2, 4624 cd m−2 (at 15 V) and 2.1 cd A−1 (at 7 V) for compound 3, and 3164 cd m−2 (at 14 V) and 1.83 cd A−1 (at 13 V) for compound 4 in the configuration D, respectively, indicating that they are good multifunctional materials with strong hole-transporting abilities and luminescence properties.