Synthesis and Properties of Highly Efficient Electroluminescent Green Phosphorescent Iridium Cored Dendrimers

Twisted Carbazole Dendrons for Solution-Processable Green Emissive Phosphorescent Dendrimers

A family of first-generation dendrimers containing 3,5-bis(carbazolyl)phenyl dendrons attached to a green emissive fac-tris(2-phenylpyridyl)iridium(III) core were prepared. The solubility of the dendrimers was imparted by the attachment of tert-butyl surface groups to the carbazole moieties. The dendrimers differed in the number of dendrons attached to each ligand (one or two dendrons) as well as the degree of rotational restriction within the dendrons. The densities of the films containing the doubly dendronized materials were higher than those of their mono-dendronized counterparts, with the dendrimer containing two rotationally constrained dendrons per ligand having the highest density at 1.12 ± 0.04 g cm^-3. The dendrimers were found to have high photoluminescence quantum yields (PLQYs) in solution of between 80 and 90%, with the doubly dendronized materials having the lower values and a red-shifted emission. The neat film PLQY values of the dendrimers were less than those measured in solution although the relative decrease was smaller for the doubly dendronized materials. The dendrimers were incorporated into solution-processed bilayer organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) composed of neat or blend emissive layers and an electron transport layer. The best-performing devices had the dendrimers blended with a host material and external quantum efficiencies as high as 14.0%, which is higher than previously reported results for carbazole-incorporating emissive dendrimers. A feature of the devices containing blends of the doubly dendronized materials was that the maximum efficiency was relatively insensitive to the concentration in the host between 1 and 7 mol %.

Cibalackrot Dendrimers for Hyperfluorescent Organic Light-Emitting Diodes

Hyperfluorescent organic light-emitting diodes (HF-OLEDs) enable a cascading Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) from a suitable thermally activated delayed fluorescent (TADF) assistant host to a fluorescent end-emitter to give efficient OLEDs with relatively narrowed electroluminescence compared to TADF-OLEDs. Efficient HF-OLEDs require optimal FRET with minimum triplet diffusion via Dexter-type energy transfer (DET) from the TADF assistant host to the fluorescent end-emitter. To hinder DET, steric protection of the end-emitters has been proposed to disrupt triplet energy transfer. In this work, the first HF-OLEDs based on structurally well-defined macromolecules, dendrimers is reported. The dendrimers contain new highly twisted dendrons attached to a Cibalackrot core, resulting in high solubility in organic solvents. HF-OLEDs based on dendrimer blend films are fabricated to show external quantum efficiencies of >10% at 100 cd m^-2 . Importantly, dendronization with the bulky dendrons is found to have no negative impact to the FRET efficiency, indicating the excellent potential of the dendritic macromolecular motifs for HF-OLEDs. To fully prevent the undesired triplet diffusion, Cibalackrot dendrimers HF-OLEDs are expected to be further improved by adding additional dendrons to the Cibalackrot core and/or increasing dendrimer generations.

Azide functionalized porphyrin based dendritic polymers for in vivo monitoring of Hg2+ ions in living cells

A porphyrin cored azide functionalised dendritic polymer was developed as a selective sensor for in vivo monitoring of mercuric ions in living (normal and cancer) cells and in an aqueous medium. The developed sensor could sense mercuric ions even at a nanomolar concentration with a limit of detection value of 0.9 nM. This probe can be used to monitor mercuric ions in living cells due to its low cytotoxicity and high cell permeability. The hydrophilic nature of the polymer makes it a promising candidate for sensing mercuric ions in real water samples. Moreover, the reversibility of this sensing strategy helps in constructing a logic gate, which is particularly useful in smart sensor design.

Polypyridyl ligands as a versatile platform for solid-state light-emitting devices

A comprehensive review of tuneable polypyridine complexes as the emissive components of OLED and LEC devices is presented, with a view to bridging the gap between molecular design and commercialization.

Tailoring the Emission of Fluorinated Bipyridine-Chelated Iridium Complexes

New functionalized tris(2',6'-difluoro-2,3'-bipyridinato-N,C4')iridium(III) ((dfpypy)₃Irs) complexes, including small molecules and their dendrimer embedded analogoues, were synthesized and characterized. It is demonstrated that both the fac-(dfpypy)₃Ir-based polyphenylene dendrimers and (triisopropylsilyl)ethynyl (TIPSE)-substituted (dfpypy)₃Ir complexes induce large bathochromic shifts (∼50 nm) of emission bands compared with fac-(dfpypy)₃Ir. This is due to the pronounced ³π-π* character of emissive excited states and the extended conjugation. A further remarkable feature is the small bathochromic shift of the emissions of fac-tris(2-phenylpyridine)iridium (fac-(ppy)₃Ir)-based polyphenylene dendrimers when compared to those of the iridium (Ir) complex core. Obviously, the triplet metal-to-ligand charge transfer makes emission less sensitive to extended conjugation than the ³π-π* transition. This finding suggests new concepts for designing blue phosphorescent dendrimer emitters. Both the dendrimers and the TIPSE-substituted (dfpypy)₃Ir complexes represent new green and the trimethylsilyl-functionalized (dfpypy)₃Ir new blue phosphorescent emitters. Incorporation of TIPSE moieties into the ligands of iridium complex gives rise to enhanced phosphorescence.

Morphology of OLED Film Stacks Containing Solution-Processed Phosphorescent Dendrimers

Organic light-emitting devices containing solution-processed emissive dendrimers can be highly efficient. The most efficient devices contain a blend of the light-emitting dendrimer in a host and one or more charge-transporting layers. Using neutron reflectometry measurements with in situ photoluminescence, we have investigated the structure of the as-formed film as well as the changes in film structure and dendrimer emission under thermal stress. It was found that the as-formed film stacks comprising poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):polystyrene sulfonate/host:dendrimer/1,3,5-tris(N-phenylbenzimidazol-2-yl)benzene (where the host was deuterated 4,4'-N,N'-di(carbazolyl)biphenyl or tris(4-carbazol-9-ylphenyl)amine, the host:dendrimer layer was solution-processed, and the 1,3,5-tris(N-phenylbenzimidazol-2-yl)benzene evaporated) had well-defined interfaces, indicating good wetting of each of the layers by the subsequently deposited layer. Upon thermal annealing, there was no change in the poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):polystyrene sulfonate/host:dendrimer interface, but once the temperature reached above the T_g of the host:dendrimer layer, it became a supercooled liquid into which 1,3,5-tris(N-phenylbenzimidazol-2-yl)benzene dissolved. When the film stacks were held at a temperature just above the onset of the diffusion process, they underwent an initial relatively fast diffusion process before reaching a quasi-stable state at that temperature.

Structural Mimics of Phenyl Pyridine (ppy) - Substituted, Phosphorescent Cyclometalated Homo and Heteroleptic Iridium(III) Complexes for Organic Light Emitting Diodes - An Overview

Today organic light emitting diodes are a topic of significant academic and industrial research interest. OLED technology is used in commercially available displays, and efforts have been directed to improve this technology. Design and synthesis of phosphorescent based transition metals are capable of harvesting both singlet and triplet excitons and achieve 100 % internal quantum efficiency is an active area of research. Among all the transition metals, iridium is considered a prime candidate for OLEDs due to its prominent photophysical characteristics. In the present review, we have concentrated on the Iridium based homo and heteroleptic complexes that have dissimilar substitutions on phenylpyridine ligands, different ancillary ligands and the effect of substitution on HOMO/LUMO energies and a brief discussion and correlation on the photophysical, electrochemical and device performances of the different complexes have been reviewed for organic light emitting diodes.

Towards an efficient blue emission cationic Ir(iii) complex with azole-type ancillary ligands: a joint theoretical and experimental study

A highly efficient blue emitting cationic Ir(iii) complex based on 1,2,4-triazole-pyridine ligands modified by a simple methyl moiety is reported.

Anthanthrene dye-sensitized solar cells: influence of the number of anchoring groups and substitution motif

Four anthanthrene-based molecules were synthesized as sensitizers in dye-sensitized solar cells, leading to the best overall efficiency up to 5.3%.

Energetic requirements of iridium(iii) complex based photosensitisers in photocatalytic hydrogen generation

Hydrogen generation is observed when excited Ir(iii) complexes (PS*) are reduced by the sacrificial agent (SA), which occurs when E(PS*/PS⁻) and E(SA⁺/SA) is >0.2 V.

High power efficiency phosphorescent poly(dendrimer) OLEDs

We show that it is possible to produce an efficient solution-processable phosphorescent poly(dendrimer) OLED with a 32 lm/W power efficiency at 100 cd/m2 without using a charge transporting host or any improvements in light extraction. This is achieved by using the dendrimer architecture to control inter-chromophore interactions. The effects of using 4,4',4″-tris(N-carbazolyl)triphenylamine (TCTA) as a charge transporting host and using a double dendron structure to further reduce inter-chromophore interactions are also reported.

Bipolar heteroleptic green iridium dendrimers containing oligocarbazole and oxadiazole dendrons for bright and efficient nondoped electrophosphorescent devices

Bipolar heteroleptic green light-emitting iridium (Ir) dendrimers G(OXD) and G(DOXD) have been designed and synthesized under mild conditions in high yields, in which the first C^N and second O^O ligands are functionalized with oligocarbazole- and oxadiazole-based dendrons, respectively. To avoid affecting the optical properties of the emissive iridium core, all the functional moieties are attached to the ligands through a flexible spacer. Compared with the unipolar dendrimer G(acac), dendrimers G(OXD) and G(DOXD) exhibit the close emission maxima of 511-512 nm and photoluminescence quantum yield of 0.39-0.40 in a solution of toluene. Moreover, on going from G(acac) to G(OXD) and G(DOXD), we have found that the introduction of oxadiazole fragments decreases the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) energy levels to facilitate the electron injection and electron transporting, while their highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) energy levels remain unchanged. This means that, we can individually tune the HOMO and LUMO energy levels based on the heteroleptic structure to ensure the relative independence between the hole and electron in the emitting layer (EML), which is a favorable feature for bipolar optoelectronic materials. As a result, a bilayer nondoped electrophosphorescent device with G(DOXD) as the EML gives a maximum luminous efficiency of 25.5 cd A(-1) (η(ext): 7.4%) and a brightness of 33,880 cd m(-2). In comparison to G(acac) (17.2 cd A(-1), 17,680 cd m(-2)), both the efficiency and brightness are improved by about 1.5 and 2 times, respectively. These state-of-the-art performances indicate the potential of these bipolar heteroleptic iridium dendrimers as solution-processible emitting materials for nondoped device applications.

Highly Efficient Multifunctional Phosphorescent Dendrimers Consisting of an Iridium-Complex Core and Charge-Transporting Dendrons for Organic Light-Emitting Devices

We report a novel class of emitting materials for use in the organic light-emitting devices (OLEDs): multifunctional phosphorescent dendrimers that have a phosphorescent core and have charge transporting dendrons. We have synthesized first-generation and second-generation dendrimers consisting of a fac-tris(2-phenylpyridine)iridium [Ir(ppy)3] core and hole transporting phenylcarbazole-based dendrons. Smooth amorphous films of these dendrimers were formed by spin-coating them from solutions. The OLEDs using the dendrimer exhibited bright green or yellowish-green emission from the Ir(ppy)3 core. The external quantum efficiency of the OLED using the mixture film of the first-generation dendrimer and an electron-transporting material was as high as 7.6%.

Phosphorescent light-emitting transistors: harvesting triplet excitons

Phosphorescent light-emitting transistors, in which light emission from singlet and triplet energy levels is harvested using solution-processed materials, are presented. While a green phosphorescent dendrimer exhibits an external quantum efficiency of 0.45% at 480 cd m(-2) , a red polymer/phosphorescent small-molecule blend produces a brightness exceeding 30 cd m(-2) with a relatively high hole mobility of 2.5 × 10(-2)  cm(2) V(-1) s(-1) .