Indolo[3,2-a]carbazoles as Engineered Materials for Optoelectronic Applications: Synthesis, Structural Insights, and Computational Screening

Abstract

The biological and medicinal importance of indolocarbazoles has been known for the past several decades. However, in recent times, these compounds have been emerging as potential candidates for optoelectronic applications, although several challenges are associated with their synthesis. We report here a Pd(II)-catalyzed process for the synthesis of indolo[3,2a]carbazoles. The reaction proceeded under neat conditions and in the presence of aqueous nonmetallic oxidant TBHP, and the products were purified directly after the completion of the reaction. Also, the possibility of employing the present method for reaction with gram-scale feed was investigated. A detailed single-crystal analysis of several indolo[3,2-a]carbazoles revealed how the molecular arrangement can be tuned by altering the functionalization. Finally, the developed molecules were screened computationally to assess their potential for possible use as hole transport materials (HTMs) for organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs).