Lighting Silver(I) Complexes for Solution-Processed Organic Light-Emitting Diodes and Biological Applications via...

Area of Science:

• Coordination Chemistry
• Materials Science
• Photophysics

Background:

• Coinage metal complexes offer sustainable alternatives to rare transition metals for optoelectronic and biomedical applications.
• Silver(I) complexes are underexplored due to historically inferior emission properties compared to gold(I) and copper(I).

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop novel silver(I) complexes with enhanced luminescent properties.
• To investigate the potential of these complexes in organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) and theranostic applications.

Main Methods:

• Synthesis of novel [Ag(N^N)(P^P)]PF6 complexes using accessible diamine and diphosphine ligands.
• Characterization of photoluminescence quantum yields (PLQYs) and fabrication of solution-processed OLEDs.
• Evaluation of cytotoxicity and application in simultaneous cell imaging and anticancer treatment of HepG2 cells.

Main Results:

• The synthesized Ag(I) complexes exhibit efficient thermally activated delayed fluorescence.
• Achieved high PLQYs (≤0.62 in doped films) and a maximum external quantum efficiency of 8.76% in OLEDs.
• Demonstrated potent cytotoxicity and successful simultaneous cell imaging and anticancer treatment in vitro.

Conclusions:

• Novel Ag(I) complexes possess superior emission properties, overcoming previous limitations.
• These complexes show significant potential for high-performance OLEDs and theranostic applications, particularly in oncology.