Construction of biomass-based AIEgens with dehydroabietic acid triarylamine and tetraphenylethene Moieties for non-doped OLEDs

Dehydroabietic acid triarylamine (DTPA) synthesized from renewable natural rosin is an excellent hole-transporting material but is affected by aggregation-caused quenching in the solid state. Herein, two new biomass-based AIE luminogens (AIEgens), namely DTPA-TPE and 2DTPA-TPE, were synthesized through the attachment of DTPA to tetraphenylethene (TPE). Their aggregates in poor solvents and thin films have a strong emission with a fluorescence quantum yield of up to 67.4%. DTPA AIEgens exhibit superior thermal and morphological stability, showing high thermal degradation ( T 5d up to 412.0 °C) and glass transition ( T g up to 150.8 °C) temperatures. Electroluminescence (EL) devices with compounds used either as emitting layers (EMLs) or as EMLs and hole-transporting layers (HTLs) were constructed. The device with 2DTPA-TPE as the EML exhibits the best performance (turn-on voltage of 2.4 V, maximum luminance of 12,414 cd m −2 , current efficiency of 6.2 cd A −1 , and power efficiency of 6.5 lm W −1 ). The devices without the HTL ( N , N ′-di-1-naphthyl- N , N ′-diphenylbenzidine (NPB)) exhibit performances comparable with or better than those of the devices with NPB. These results indicate that these compounds are promising luminescent materials for non-doped organic light-emitting diodes. • AIEgens derived from rosin were synthesized by connecting TPE to DTPA via the C–C coupling reaction. • The compounds exhibited good optical properties, AIE properties and thermal properties. • Their HOMO and LUMO energy levels and electronic structure have been studied through experiments and theoretical calculations. • The compounds are promising bifunctional materials for non-doped OLED applications.