Phosphorescent iridium (III) 2-phenylpyridine complexes: Efficient color tuning by novel ancillary ligands

A series of iridium (III) complexes incorporating novel ancillary ligands have been synthesized and fully characterized by IR, 1H NMR, HRMS and elemental analysis. The crystal structures of 1 and 4 have been determined by X-ray analysis. The photoluminescence spectra of 1–4 show emission maxima at 501, 414, 592 and 504 nm, respectively, which cover almost the whole visible range, as a consequence of the nature of the fused imidazo-carboxylate ancillary ligands. In particular, 3 is an effective constituent for the multi-component white light phosphorescent materials, because it can simultaneously emit three colors (blue, blue–green, and red) and cover the whole visible range from 400 to 600 nm.

Graphical abstractThe photoluminescence spectra of iridium (III) complexes with novel ancillary ligands cover almost the whole visible range with blue, blue–green, and red emissions.Figure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload as PowerPoint slide