Electroluminescence from a volatile europium complex

Three new strongly chelating heterocyclic ligands containing pyridine, imidazole and triazine rings have been used to make ternary complexes of Europium(III) ions together with trifluoroacetylacetonate. The complex containing 5,6-diphenyl-3-(2-pyridyl)-1,2,3-triazine produced efficient electroluminescence in an Organic Light Emitting Diode in the presence of Poly(9-vinylcarbazole) and 8-Hydroxyquinoline aluminum salt, used as hole and electron transporters, respectively. The external quantum efficiency of this device was 0.16%.