Bulky iridium NHC complexes for bright, efficient deep-blue OLEDs
Date
18/01/2023Author
Grant ID
EP/P010482/1
EP/M02105X/1
EP/K503940/1
SRF\R1\201089
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Four new deep-blue-emitting iridium(III) NHC complexes containing sterically demanding ligands are synthesized. The four complexes show bright, deep-blue emission, with emission maxima between 420 and 427 nm in both acetonitrile solution and 30 wt% doped films in TSPO1; the two meridional isomers showing photoluminescence quantum yields, ΦPL, in doped films of 80% and 89%. The two meridional isomers are used to assess the impact of emitters containing bulky, sterically demanding ligands on the performance of organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). OLEDs employing a stepped doping profile with mer-Ir(tfpi_tmBn)3 as the emitter produce the highest performing devices in this study, with these devices exhibiting deep-blue [λEL = 429 nm, CIE = (0.16, 0.08)] emission and a maximum external quantum efficiency (EQEmax) of 14.9%, which decreases to 11.7% at 100 cd m−2. The performance of the OLEDs shows very good efficiencies and moderate efficiency roll-offs in comparison to reported phosphorescent deep-blue OLEDs with CIEy ≤ 0.08, as required for commercial displays. The promising results suggest that the design strategy of adding steric bulk to blue emitting iridium complexes containing NHC ligands is a useful strategy for reducing intermolecular interactions between emitters in OLEDs.
Citation
Mackenzie , C F R , Zhang , L , Cordes , D B , Slawin , A M Z , Samuel , I D W & Zysman-Colman , E 2023 , ' Bulky iridium NHC complexes for bright, efficient deep-blue OLEDs ' , Advanced Optical Materials , vol. 11 , no. 2 , 2201495 . https://doi.org/10.1002/adom.202201495
Publication
Advanced Optical Materials
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
2195-1071Type
Journal article
Rights
Copyright © 2022 The Authors. Advanced Optical Materials published by Wiley-VCH GmbH. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Description
Funding: C.F.R.M. and L.Z. contributed equally to this work. The authors thank the University of St Andrews and EPSRC for financial support (grants EP/P010482/1 and EP/M02105X/1, EP/K503940/1). The authors thank Umicore AG for the gift of materials. E.Z.-C. was a Royal Society Leverhulme Trust Senior Research fellow (SRF\R1\201089).Collections
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