A Configurationally Confined Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescent Two-Coordinate CuI Complex for Efficient Blue Electroluminescence

Thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) from linear two-coordinate coinage metal complexes is sensitive to the geometric arrangement of the ligands. Herein we realize the tuning of configuration from coplanar to orthogonal gradually by variation of substituents. In a complex with confined twist configuration, its blue emission peaking at 458 nm presents a high Φ_PL of 0.74 and a short τ_TADF of 1.9 μs, which indicates a fast enough k_r,TADF of 3.9×10⁵  s^-1 and a depressed k_nr of 1.4×10⁵  s^-1 . Such outstanding luminescent properties are attributed to the proper overlap of HOMO and LUMO on Cu^I d orbitals that guarantees not only small ΔE_ST but also sufficient transition oscillator strength for fast k r , S 1 ${{k}_{{\rm r},{{\rm S}}_{1}}}$ . Vacuum-deposited blue OLEDs with either doped or host-free emissive layer present external quantum efficiencies over 20 % and 10 %, respectively, demonstrating the practicality of the configurationally confined strategy for efficient linear Cu^I TADF emitters.

Redox Active cAAC-Fluorene/Indene Systems Displaying Solvatochromism, Green Luminescence and pH Sensing: Functionalization of Fluorenyl/Indenyl Rings with Radical Carbene

Two new series of air stable compounds of cAAC^X = fluorene/indene (X = Me₂ , Et₂ , Cy) [cAAC = cyclic (alkyl) amino carbene] have been isolated and well characterized by X-ray single crystal diffraction, photoluminescence, cyclic voltammogram (CV) and electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) studies. Fluorescence studies reveals green light emission of cAAC bonded fluorene, whereas free fluorene generally displays a violet emission. Interestingly, the sterically crowded cAAC-fluorene analogue display solvatochromism and CF₃ CO₂ H sensing in solution. CV of the these compounds show a quasi-reversible electron transfer process, indicating the functionalization of fluorene/indene with radical anionic form of carbene, confirmed by CV/EPR measurements. DFT/TDDFT calculations and energy decomposition analysis coupled with natural orbital for chemical valence (EDA-NOCV) have been carried out to study different aspects of bonding and electronic transitions. Such a class of redox active and thermally stable organic molecules may be suitable for molecule based spin memory devices in future.

A Green Synthesis of Carbene-Metal-Amides (CMAs) and Carboline-Derived CMAs with Potent in vitro and ex vivo Anticancer Activity

The modularity and ease of synthesis of carbene-metal-amide (CMA) complexes based on the coinage metals (Au, Ag, Cu) and N-heterocyclic carbenes (NHCs) as ancillary ligands pave the way for the expansion of their applications beyond photochemistry and catalysis. Herein, we further improve the synthesis of such compounds by circumventing the use of toxic organic solvents which were previously required for their purification, and we expand their scope to include complexes incorporating carbolines as the amido fragments. The novel complexes are screened both in vitro and ex vivo, against several cancer cell lines and high-grade serous ovarian cancer (HGSOC) tumoroids, respectively. Excellent cytotoxicity values are obtained for most complexes, while the structural variety of the CMA library screened thus far, provides promising leads for future developments. Variations of all three components (NHC, metal, amido ligand), enable the establishment of trends regarding cytotoxicity and selectivity towards cancerous over normal cells.

Highly Efficient Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescence from Pyrazine-Fused Carbene Au(I) Emitters

Metal-based thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) is conceived to inherit the advantages of both phosphorescent metal complexes and purely organic TADF compounds for high-performance electroluminescence. Herein a panel of new TADF Au(I) emitters has been designed and synthesized by using carbazole and pyrazine-fused nitrogen-heterocyclic carbene (NHC) as the donor and acceptor ligands, respectively. Single-crystal X-ray structures show linear molecular shape and coplanar arrangement of the donor and acceptor with small dihedral angles of <6.5°. The coplanar orientation and appropriate separation of the HOMO and LUMO in this type of molecules favour the formation of charge-transfer excited state with appreciable oscillator strength. Together with a minor but essential heavy atom effect of Au ion, the complexes in doped films exhibit highly efficient (Φ∼0.9) and short-lived (<1 μs) green emissions via TADF. Computational studies on this class of emitters have been performed to decipher the key reverse intersystem crossing (RISC) pathway. In addition to a small energy splitting between the lowest singlet and triplet excited states (ΔE_ST ), the spin-orbit coupling (SOC) effect is found to be larger at a specific torsion angle between the donor and acceptor planes which favours the RISC process the most. This work provides an alternative molecular design to TADF Au(I) carbene emitters for OLED application.

Deuterated Covalent Organic Frameworks with Significantly Enhanced Luminescence

Luminescent covalent organic frameworks (COFs) find promising applications in chemical sensing, photocatalysis, and optoelectronic devices, however, the majority of COFs are non or weakly emissive owing to the aggregation-caused quenching (ACQ) or the molecular thermal motion-based energy dissipation. Here, we report a previously unperceived approach to improve luminescence performance of COFs by introducing isotope effect, which is achieved through substitution of hydrogen from high-frequency oscillators X-H (X=O, N, C) by heavier isotope deuterium. Combining the "bottom-up" and in situ deuteration methods generates the first deuterated COF, which exhibits an impressively 19-fold enhancement in quantum yield over that of the non-deuterated counterpart. These results are interpreted by theoretical calculations as the consequence of slower C/N-D and OD⋅⋅⋅O vibrations that impede the nonradiative deactivation process. The proposed strategy is proved applicable to many other types of emissive COFs.

Simple Synthetic Routes to Carbene-M-Amido (M=Cu, Ag, Au) Complexes for Luminescence and Photocatalysis Applications

The development of novel and operationally simple synthetic routes to carbene‐metal‐amido (CMA) complexes of copper, silver and gold relevant for photonic applications are reported. A mild base and sustainable solvents allow all reactions to be conducted in air and at room temperature, leading to high yields of the targeted compounds even on multigram scales. The effect of various mild bases on the N−H metallation was studied in silico and experimentally, while a mechanochemical, solvent‐free synthetic approach was also developed. Our photophysical studies on [M(NHC)(Cbz)] (Cbz=carbazolyl) indicate that the occurrence of fluorescent or phosphorescent states is determined primarily by the metal, providing control over the excited state properties. Consequently, we demonstrate the potential of the new CMAs beyond luminescence applications by employing a selected CMA as a photocatalyst. The exemplified synthetic ease is expected to accelerate the applications of CMAs in photocatalysis and materials chemistry.

Cross-Coupled Phenyl- and Alkynyl-Based Phenanthrolines and Their Effect on the Photophysical and Electrochemical Properties of Heteroleptic Cu(I) Photosensitizers

With the aims of increasing the antenna system and improving the photophysical properties of Cu(I)-based photosensitizers, the backbone of 2,9-dimethyl-1,10-phenanthroline was selectively extended in the 5,6-position. Applying specifically tailored Suzuki-Miyaura and "chemistry-on-the-complex" Sonogashira cross-coupling reactions enabled the development of two sets of structurally related diimine ligands with a broad variety of different phenyl- and alkynyl-based substituents. The resulting 11 novel heteroleptic Cu(I) complexes, including five solid-state structures, were studied with respect to their structure-property relationships. Both sets of substituents are able to red-shift the absorption maxima and to increase the absorptivity. For the alkynyl-based complexes, this is accompanied by a significant anodic shift of the reduction potentials. The phenyl-based substituents strongly influence the emission wavelength and quantum yield of the resulting Cu(I) complexes and lead to an increase in the emission lifetime of up to 504 ns, which clearly indicates competition with the benchmark system [(xantphos)Cu(bathocuproine)]PF₆.

Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescence from d10 -Metal Carbene Complexes through Intermolecular Charge Transfer and Multicolor Emission with a Monomer-Dimer Equilibrium

A series of two-coordinate AuI and CuI complexes (3 a, 3 b and 5 a, 5 b) are reported as new organometallic thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) emitters, which are based on the carbene-metal-carbazole model with a pyridine-fused 1,2,3-triazolylidene (PyTz) ligand. PyTz features low steric hindrance and a low-energy LUMO (LUMO=-1.47 eV) located over the π* orbitals of the whole ligand, which facilitates intermolecular charge transfer between a donor (carbazole) and an accepter (PyTz). These compounds exhibit efficient TADF with microsecond lifetimes. Temperature-dependent photoluminescence kinetics of 3 a supports a rather small energy gap between S1 and T1 (ΔES 1 - T 1 =60 meV). Further experiments reveal that there are dual-emission properties from a monomer-dimer equilibrium in solution, exhibiting single-component multicolor emission from blue to orange, including white-light emission.