A series of new blue-emitting materials: (4-(10-(naphthalen-2-yl)anthracen-9-yl)phenyl)(phenyl) methanone (I); 9-(naphthalen-2-yl)-10-(4-((diphenyl)phosphine oxide)phenyl)anthracene (2); 9(naphthalen-2-yl)-10-(4-(phenylsulfonyl)phenyl)anthracene (3) were designed and synthesized via Suzuki cross-coupling reaction. Multilayer OLEDs were fabricated in the following sequence: ITO (180 nm)/NPB (50 nm)/blue materials 1-3 (30 nm)/TPBi (15 nm)/Liq (2 nm)/Al (100 nm). All devices showed the efficient blue EL emissions. In particular, the device using 1 as an emitter exhibited efficient blue electroluminescent properties with a maximum luminous, power, external quantum efficiency and CIE coordinates of 0.36 cd/A, 0.90 lm/W, 0.55% at 20 mA/cm(2) and (x = 0.16, y = 0.20) at 10.0V, respectively. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.