Structurally Nontraditional Benzo[c]cinnoline-Based Electron-Transporting Materials with 3D Molecular Interaction Architecture.

The academically widely used electron-transporting materials (ETMs) typically suffer from low glass transition temperatures (T g ) that could lead to poor device stability. Considering practical applications, we herein put forward a "3D molecular interaction architecture" strategy to design high-performance ETMs. As a proof-of-concept, a type of structurally nontraditional ETMs with the benzo[c]cinnoline (BZC) skeleton have been proposed and synthesized by the C-H/C-H homo-coupling of N-acylaniline as the key step. 2,9-diphenylbenzo[c]cinnoline (DPBZC) exhibits strong intermolecular interactions that feature a 3D architecture, which boosts T g to exceedingly high 218 °C with a fast electron mobility (μ e ) of 6.4×10 -4  cm 2  V -1  s -1 . DPBZC-based fluorescent organic light-emitting diodes show outstanding electroluminescent performances with an external quantum efficiency of 20.1 % and a power efficiency as high as 70.6 lm W -1 , which are superior to those of the devices with the commonly used ETMs.