A salicylidene derivative, N,N′-bis(salicylidene)-(2-(3′,4′-diaminophenyl)benzothiazole) (BTS), reactive in the Excited State Intramolecular Proton Transfer (ESIPT) process, was synthesized and its photophysical properties were evaluated, presenting an emission covering the entire range of the visible spectrum. Due to its broad emission band, BTS was successfully tested as an active layer in solution-processed organic light-emitting diodes with white-light emission. These diodes were prepared using solution-based protocols with the dye solubilized in a poly(9-vinylcarbazole) matrix. Different guest : host (polymer : BTS) molar ratios were used to optimize the diode performance. The optimized architecture rendered the best so far all-solution-processed ESIPT OLED with a luminance of 34 cd m⁻² at 13.5 V with CIE coordinates 0.31, 0.40.

This work presents the determination of acidic strengths at the electronic ground and excited states (pK_a and ) of three flavonol derivatives using electronic absorption and fluorescence emission spectroscopy. The differences of the pK_a and values were successfully correlated with the molecular structures according to the substitution pattern at the flavonol structure (hydrogen, diethylamino or fluoro moieties). In order to obtain more information about the observed photoacidity of these superacids, geometry optimizations and excitation energy calculations were performed at the CAM-B3LYP/6-311++G(d,p) level for their neutral, protonated and deprotonated species.