A–π–A, D–π–D and D–π–A blue emitting fluorophores based on dispiro[fluorene-9,6′-indeno[1,2-b]fluorene-12′,9′′-fluorene]

Abstract

We report a series of blue fluorophores based on the dispiro[fluorene-9,6′-indeno[1,2-b]fluorene-12′,9′′-fluorene] (DSF-IF) scaffold. The DSF-IF scaffold, introduced in 2006 in the literature for organic electronic applications, is nowadays a very useful building block to construct functional materials. However, the functionalization of the DSF-IF scaffold has been poorly investigated to date. In this work, we focus on three different molecular architectures incorporating at each extremity of the central dihydroindenofluorenyl core either an electron accepting unit (A–π–A), an electron donating unit (D–π–D) or one of each (D–π–A). The different substitutions of the dihydroindeno[1,2-b]fluorenyl core has allowed the strong modulation of the properties of the dyes and the precise study of the effect of this fragment as a π-conjugated bridge.