Issue 2, 2020

Carbene metal amide photoemitters: tailoring conformationally flexible amides for full color range emissions including white-emitting OLED

Abstract

Conformationally flexible “Carbene–Metal–Amide” (CMA) complexes of copper and gold have been developed based on a combination of sterically hindered cyclic (alkyl)(amino)carbene (CAAC) and 6- and 7-ring heterocyclic amide ligands. These complexes show photoemissions across the visible spectrum with PL quantum yields of up to 89% in solution and 83% in host-guest films. Single crystal X-ray diffraction and photoluminescence (PL) studies combined with DFT calculations indicate the important role of ring structure and conformational flexibility of the amide ligands. Time-resolved PL shows efficient delayed emission with sub-microsecond to microsecond excited state lifetimes at room temperature, with radiative rates exceeding 106 s−1. Yellow organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) based on a 7-ring gold amide were fabricated by thermal vapor deposition, while the sky-blue to warm-white mechanochromic behavior of the gold phenothiazine-5,5-dioxide complex enabled fabrication of the first CMA-based white light-emitting OLED.

Graphical abstract: Carbene metal amide photoemitters: tailoring conformationally flexible amides for full color range emissions including white-emitting OLED

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Edge Article
Submitted
12 sep. 2019
Accepted
12 nov. 2019
First published
13 nov. 2019
This article is Open Access

All publication charges for this article have been paid for by the Royal Society of Chemistry
Creative Commons BY license

Chem. Sci., 2020,11, 435-446

Carbene metal amide photoemitters: tailoring conformationally flexible amides for full color range emissions including white-emitting OLED

A. S. Romanov, S. T. E. Jones, Q. Gu, P. J. Conaghan, B. H. Drummond, J. Feng, F. Chotard, L. Buizza, M. Foley, M. Linnolahti, D. Credgington and M. Bochmann, Chem. Sci., 2020, 11, 435 DOI: 10.1039/C9SC04589A

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications without requesting further permissions from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given.

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