Strong ligand field effects of blue phosphorescent Ir(III) complexes with phenylpyrazole and phosphines

In the paper, we describe new Ir complexes for achieving efficient blue phosphorescence. New blue-emitting mixed-ligand Ir complexes comprising one cyclometalating, two phosphines trans to each other such as Ir(dppz)(PPh3)2(H)(L) (Ll= Cl, NCMe+, CN), [dppz = 3,5-Diphenylpyrazole] were synthesized and studied to tune the phosphorescence wavelength to the deep blue region and to enhance the luminescence efficiencies. To gain insight into the factors responsible for the emission color change and the variation of luminescence efficiency, we investigate the electron-withdrawing capabilities of ancillary ligands using DFT and TD-DFT calculations on the ground and excited states of the complexes. To achieve deep blue emission and increase the emission efficiency, (1) we substitute the phenyl group on the 3-position of the pyrazole ring that lowers the triplet energy enough that the quenching channel is not thermally accessible and (2) change the ancillary ligands coordinated to iridium atom to phosphine and cyano groups known as very strong field ligands. Their inclusion in the coordination sphere can increase the HOMO-LUMO gap to achieve the hypsochromic shift in emission color and lower the HOMO and LUMO energy level, which causes a large d-orbital energy splitting and avoids the quenching effect to improve the luminescence efficiency. The maximum emission spectra of Ir(dppz)(PPh3)2(H)(CI) and Ir(dppz)(PPh3)2(H)(CN) were in the ranges of 439, 432 nm, respectively.