A sublimationable blue-green host materials based on tris(8-hydroxyquinolato)aluminum, meridional tris(5-N-ethylanilinesulfonamide-8-quinolato) aluminum, mer-Al(Saq)(3), was investigated and characterized by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and H-1 nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). Via molecular engineering, the sublimation enthalpy of mer-Al(Saq)(3) can be adjusted by introducing the N-ethylanilinesulfonamide substitutent. Its electroluminescence (EL) was also characterized by the device architecture of glass/ITO (200 nm)/CuPc (15 nm)/NPB (60 nm)/mer-Al(Saq)(3) (55 nm)/LiF (1 nm)/Al (200 nm). It shows a blue-green spectrum with blue-green of 1931 CIEx,y(0.25, 0.39). Our experiments revealed that the Al-N bond order might not be the major issue in sublimation process. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.