A facile iterative procedure for the preparation of dendrimers containing luminescent cores and stilbene dendrons

A simple two-step convergent iterative procedure has been developed for the preparation of stilbene dendrons containing an aldehyde at the center whic h can be coupled in a single step to give dendrimers that contain luminesce nt chromophores. The stilbene units in the dendrons are linked in a meta ar rangement at the branching phenyl units allowing them to be treated, to a f irst approximation, as isolated chromophores. All the dendrimers are lumine scent with emission observed from the core. The cores prepared were distyry lbenzene, distyrylanthracene, and meso-tetraphenylporphyrin which photolumi nesce blue, yellow-green, and red, respectively. We found that all the dend rimers, independent of generation or core, could be spin-coated from soluti on to form good quality thin films, which shows that the processing conditi ons have been disengaged from the electronic properties in this series of m aterials.