A butterfly shaped phenothiazine based electroluminescent material PPPSO2 was synthesized as an ionic small molecule emitter for light-emitting electrochemical cells (LECs). PPPSO2 shows deep blue emission in solution with high fluorescent quantum yield of 0.49. By employing the active molecule PPPSO2 as an emitter in LECs, the device shows electroluminescence centered at 498 nm with CIE coordinates of (0.21, 0.31) and maximum luminance of 509 cd m−2. The results show that the versatility of phenothiazine based luminescent materials such as high thermal stability and different emission color by tuning the oxidation state makes phenothiazine derivatives a prospective material for light-emitting devices.
