Synthesis and Photophysical Properties of 9,10-Diarylanthracene

9,10-Bis(4-methoxyphenyl) anthracene (2a) and 9,10-bis(4-formylphenyl) anthracene (2b) were synthesized by Suzuki coupling reaction. The target molecular structure was fully characterized by 1H NMR and mass spectra. The photophysical properties of two compounds in diluted CH2Cl2 solutions were obtained by using UV-vis and FL spectra and the thermal stability were researched by TGA and DSC. At the same time, the aided verification was operating by DFT calculations. The results show that two compounds have excellent thermal stability because of the increase of substituents which can benefit to improve thermal stability. The decomposition temperatures (Td) of 9,10-bis(4-methoxyphenyl) anthracene can reach to 307 °C. All these molecules show highly blue emissions (λmaxFL < 477 nm) with excellent quantum yields (Φf > 0.52) in solution and with the increase of π-conjugation, the emission peak maximum exhibits the red Stokes shift (40 nm). The UV-vis absorption and FL emission spectra of compound 2a have almost no change depending on the solvent polarity, moreover, the FL emission spectra of compound 2b has the obvious red Stokes shift on moving from non-polar solvent(cyclohexane) to strong-polar solvent(DMF). That can be utilized as promising potential blue emitters in organic light-emitting devices (OLEDs) applications.