Highly soluble green‐emitting Ir(III) complexes with 9‐(6‐phenyl‐pyridin‐3‐ylmethyl)‐9<i>H</i>‐carbazole ligands and their application to polymer light‐emitting diodes

Abstract

Abstract Highly organic soluble Ir(III) complexes with 9‐(6‐phenyl‐pyridin‐3‐ylmethyl)‐9 H ‐carbazole were simply synthesized, and the solubility of the new complex was significantly improved when compared with the conventional green‐emitting Ir(ppy) 3 . Since a carbazole group is tethered through a nonconjugated methylene spacer, the photophysical properties of new complexes are almost identical with those of conventional Ir(ppy) 3 . The pure complexes were utilized to prepare electrophosphorescent polymer light‐emitting diodes (PLEDs). The device performances were observed to be relatively better or comparable with those of Ir(ppy) 3 based poly( N ‐vinylcarbazole) systems. The integration of rigid hole‐transporting carbazole and phosphorescent complex provides a new route to design highly efficient solution‐processable complex for electrophosphorescent PLED applications. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 46: 7419–7428, 2008