Highly Efficient Phosphorescent Tetradentate Platinum(II) Complexes Containing Fused 6/5/6 Metallocycles

A series of neutral tetradentate Pt(II) complexes with fused 6/5/6 metallocycles and biphenyl (bp)-containing ligands have been designed and synthesized. All bridging atoms adopt nitrogens designed as an acridinyl group (Ac), an aza acridinyl group (AAc), and an aza carbazolyl group (ACz), which can effectively tune their LUMO energy levels. Their HOMO energy levels can be well-controlled through molecular modifications on the bp moieties with electron-donating and electron-withdrawing groups. These molecular modifications also have profound effects on the electrochemical and photophysical properties and photostabilities of the Pt(II) complexes. The ground-states and excited states are systematically studied by density functional theory (DFT), time-dependent density functional theory (TD-DFT), and natural transition orbital (NTO) calculations. All the Pt(II) complexes exhibit admixed ³(LC/MLCT) characters in T₁ states with various proportions, which are strongly structure-dependent. These 6/5/6 Pt(II) complexes demonstrate high quantum efficiencies in dichloromethane solutions (Φ_PL = 27-51%) and in doped PMMA films (Φ_PL = 36-52%) at room temperature with short luminescence lifetimes of 1.6-9.5 μs and 7.6-9.0 μs, respectively. They emit green light with dominant peaks of 512-529 nm in solutions and 512-524 nm in doped PMMA films, respectively. Importantly, Pt(bp-2) exhibits highly stable emission colors with the same dominant peaks at 512 nm in various matrixes and also demonstrates a long photostability lifetime, LT₈₀, at 80% of initial luminance, of 190 min, which is doped in polystyrene films (5 wt %) excited by UV light of 375 nm at 500 W/m². These studies indicate that these 6/5/6 Pt(II) complexes can act as good phosphorescent emitters for OLED applications and should provide a viable route for the development of efficient and stable Pt(II)-based phosphorescent emitters.