Easily functionalizable carbazole based building blocks with extended conjugated systems for optoelectronic applications

Carbazole based building blocks, possessing diphenylethenyl fragments, have been synthesized. Condensation of the carbazol-2-ol with diphenylacetaldehyde yields 1,3-substituted derivatives. Change of the synthesis sequence, however, (i.e., substitution at the hydroxyl and NH groups, followed by the condensation reaction) results in the 3,6-substituted products. Thermal, optical, electrochemical and photophysical properties of the synthesized derivatives have been investigated. Room temperature hole-drift mobilities, evaluated using xerographic time-of-flight technique, were found to exceed 10⁻⁴ cm² V⁻¹ s⁻¹ at strong electric fields. The obtained results indicate high charge mobility for molecularly doped polymers, especially considering the fact that these measurements were carried out under ambient conditions and not in high vacuum. Commercial availability and relative cheapness of the starting materials, simple synthetic method, number of sites available for easy functionalization and covalent linking to other molecules makes these precursors attractive building blocks for the construction of more complex low-molecular-weight or polymeric materials for optoelectronic applications.