Rare Earth Complexes with 5d-4f Transition: New Emitters in Organic Light-Emitting Diodes

Organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) are considered as next-generation displays and lighting technologies. During the past three decades, various luminescent materials such as fluorescence, phosphorescence, and thermally activated delayed fluorescence materials have been subsequently investigated as emitters. To date, blue OLEDs are still the bottleneck as compared to red and green ones because of the lack of efficient emitters with simultaneous high exciton utilization efficiency and long-term stability. Recently, d-f transition rare earth complexes have been reported as new emitters in OLEDs with potential high efficiency and stability. In this Perspective, we present a brief introduction to OLEDs and an overview of the previous electroluminescence study on d-f transition rare earth complexes. This is followed by our recent developments in cerium(III) complex- and europium(II) complex-based OLEDs. We finally discuss the challenges and opportunities for OLED study based on d-f transition rare earth complexes.