Emission and Color Tuning of Cyanostilbenes and White Light Emission

White-light-emitting diodes are energy efficiency replacement of conventional lighting sources. Herein, we report the luminescent behavior of three simple cyanostilbenes with triphenylamine-donating groups bearing different electron-withdrawing groups (phenyl, pyridyl, and p-nitrophenyl) in a common donor (D)-π-acceptor (A) α-cyanostilbene construct along with their thermal and electrochemical properties. The density functional theory (DFT) studies reveal that aggregation-induced emission characteristic feature of the D-π-A dyes is inversely proportional to the intramolecular charge transfer (ICT) effect, that is, phenyl-and pyridyl-substituted compounds show characteristic aggregation-induced emission in water, whereas the ICT effect is dominant for the nitro derivative. The extent of ICT and the solvatochromic emission shifts, from blue to red, depend on the strength of the electron-withdrawing group. White luminescence and tunable emission colors are obtained by careful admixtures of these cyanostilbenes bearing triphenylamines. The results rationalized through DFT and time-dependent DFT calculations follow a consistent trend with the energy levels measured from the electrochemical and optical studies. Thermogravimetric analysis and differential scanning calorimetry studies showed excellent thermal stability of the compounds. The scanning electron microscopy and dynamic light scattering measurements were performed to reveal the formation of aggregates. This strategy involving synthetically simple and structurally similar molecules with different emission properties has potential applications in the fabrication of multicolor and white-light-emitting materials.