Palladacycle-Catalyzed Triple Suzuki Coupling Strategy for the Synthesis of Anthracene-Based OLED Emitters

The development of the site-selective Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling of dibromoanthracene as an efficient strategy toward organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) is disclosed in this article. An unprecedented step-economic palladacycle-promoted triple Suzuki coupling protocol allowed the synthesis of three new OLED emitters and could prove to be a useful general strategy for researchers working in this field. Characterization of the synthesized molecules by UV-vis spectroscopy and thermogravimetric analysis-differential scanning calorimetry followed by density functional theory studies of the different properties strongly confirms the derivatives possess more significant hole mobility character than electron transfer capability.