Photophysical and electroluminescence properties of bis(2′,6′-difluoro-2,3′-bipyridinato-N,C4′)iridium(picolinate) complexes: effect of electron-withdrawing and electron-donating group substituents at the 4′ position of the pyridyl moiety of the cyclometalated ligand

Abstract

Herein, we have synthesized a series of 2′,6′-difluoro-2,3′-bipyridine cyclometalating ligands by substituting electron-withdrawing (–CHO, –CF₃, and –CN) and electron-donating (–OMe and –NMe₂) groups at the 4′ position of the pyridyl moiety and utilized them for the construction of five new iridium(III) complexes (Ir1–Ir5) in the presence of picolinate as an ancillary ligand. The photophysical properties of the developed iridium(III) compounds were investigated with a view to understand the substituent effects. The strong electron-withdrawing (–CN) group containing the iridium(III) compound (Ir3) exhibits highly efficient genuine green phosphorescence (λ_max = 508 nm) at room temperature in solution and in thin film, with an excellent quantum efficiency (Φ_PL) of 0.90 and 0.98, respectively. On the other hand, the –CF₃ group substituted iridium(III) compound (Ir2) displays a sky-blue emission (λ_max = 468 nm) with a promising quantum efficiency (Φ_PL = 0.88 and 0.84 in solution and in thin film, respectively). The –CHO substituted iridium(III) complex (Ir1) showed greenish-yellow emission (λ_max = 542 nm). Most importantly, the strong electron-donating –NMe₂ substituted iridium(III) complex (Ir5) gives a structureless and a broad emission profile in the wavelength region 450 to 700 nm (λ_max = 520 nm) with a poor quantum efficiency. An intense blue phosphorescence with impressive quantum efficiency, especially in thin-film noted in the case of the –OMe substituted iridium(III) complex (Ir4). Comprehensive density functional theory (DFT) and time-dependent DFT (TD-DFT) approaches have been performed on the ground and excited states of the synthesized iridium(III) complexes, in order to obtain information about the absorption and emission processes and to gain deeper insights into the photophysical properties. The combinations of a smaller ΔE_S1–T1 and higher contribution of ³MLCT in the emission process result in the higher quantum yields and lifetime values for complexes Ir1–Ir3. Multi-layered Phosphorescent Organic Light Emitting Diodes (PhOLEDs) were designed using the phosphorescent dopants Ir2, Ir3 and Ir4 and their elecroluminescence properties were evaluated. Compound Ir4 at a doping level of 5 wt% shows the best performance with an external quantum efficiency of 4.7%, in the nonoptimized device, and a power efficiency of 5.8 lm W⁻¹, together with a true-blue chromacity CIE_x,y = 0.15, 0.17 recorded at the maximum brightness of 33 180 cd m⁻².