Cationic Iridium Complexes with Intramolecular π–π Interaction and Enhanced Steric Hindrance for Solid-State Light-Emitting Electrochemical Cells
摘要:
Cationic iridium complexes incorporated 4,5-diaza-9,9'-spirobifluorene as N<^>N ancillary ligands, in which one (2) or two (3) phenyl groups were introduced onto 4,5-diazafluorene to afford intraligand pi-pi interactions. The X-ray crystal structures of complexes 2 and 3 show that the pendant phenyl ring forms strong intramolecular face-to-face pi-stacking with the difluorophenyl ring of the cyclometalated ligand with distances of 3.38 angstrom for complex 2 and 3.40 and 3.46 angstrom for complex 3. This pi-pi stacking interaction minimizes the expansion of the metal ligand bonds in the excited state, resulting in a longer device lifetime in the light-emitting electrochemical cell (LEC) devices.
White electroluminescent (EL) emission from single-layered solid-state light-emitting electrochemical cells (LECs) based on host-guest cationic iridium complexes has been successfully demonstrated. The devices show white EL spectra (Commission Internationale de l'Eclairage coordinates ranging from (x, y) = (0.45, 0.40) to (0.35, 0.39) at 2.9-3.3 V with high color rendering indices up to 80. Peak external quantum efficiency and peak power efficiency of the white LEC reach 4% and 7.8 Im/W, respectively. These results suggest that white LECs based on host-guest cationic transition metal complexes may be a promising alternative for solid-state lighting technologies.