Synthesis and photophysical properties of quinoxaline-based blue aggregation-induced emission molecules

Abstract

A series of quinoxaline-based compounds 1–4 have been synthesized by a palladium-catalyzed cross-coupling reaction and their photophysical properties have been extensively studied. Compounds 1–4 show deep blue light emission both in solution (λem ≤ 425 nm, Commission Internationale de L’Eclairage y (CIEy) ≤ 0.03) and in the solid state. Moreover, compounds 1–3 show a non-typical aggregation-induced enhanced emission (AIEE), which would be effective deep blue light-emitting materials. The DFT calculation indicated that the HOMO energy levels of compounds 1–3 are distributed throughout the molecule, and the LUMO energy levels are mainly concentrated on the quinoxaline group. However, the HOMO of compound 4 is mainly on the benzene ring at 2,3 position, and the LUMO is distributed both of the quinoxaline and the benzaldehyde group at the 6,7 position.