Organic light-emitting diodes based on lateral-substituted distyrylbenzenes

We previously reported the synthesis of an insoluble distyrylbenzene (DSB) derivative and its promising results in the fabrication of organic light-emitting devices. In this work, we report the design, synthesis and characterisation of two soluble alkoxysubstituted distyrylbenzenes, one symmetrical and one unsymmetrical. Using the Langmuir–Blodgett (LB) technique, we successfully deposited 35 layers of one of our most promising distyrylbenzene derivatives on indium–tin oxide (ITO)-coated glass substrate, with aluminium forming the top contact to form a single-layer (SL) electroluminescent (EL) device. The I–V characteristics for such a device operated under forward bias is similar to a semi-classical rectifying diode and the onset of visible light emission occurs around 5 V.