Two new red-emitting ternary europium(III) complexes with high photoluminescence quantum yields and exceptional performance in OLED devices

Rashid Ilmi; Xiaofang Li; Nawal K Al Rasbi; Liang Zhou; Wai-Yeung Wong; Paul R Raithby; Muhammad S Khan

doi:10.1039/d3dt02147e

Two new red-emitting ternary europium(III) complexes with high photoluminescence quantum yields and exceptional performance in OLED devices

Dalton Trans. 2023 Sep 19;52(36):12885-12891. doi: 10.1039/d3dt02147e.

Authors

Rashid Ilmi¹, Xiaofang Li², Nawal K Al Rasbi¹, Liang Zhou², Wai-Yeung Wong³, Paul R Raithby⁴, Muhammad S Khan¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemistry, Sultan Qaboos University, P. O. Box 36, Al Khod 123, Oman. rashidilmi@gmail.com.
² State Key Laboratory of Rare Earth Resource Utilization, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Renmin Street 5625, Changchun 130022, People's Republic of China. wai-yeung.wong@polyu.edu.hk.
³ Department of Applied Biology and Chemical Technology, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong, People's Republic of China. zhoul@ciac.ac.cn.
⁴ Department of Chemistry, University of Bath, Claverton Down, Bath, BA2 7AY, UK. p.r.raithby@bath.ac.uk.

PMID: 37641950
DOI: 10.1039/d3dt02147e

Abstract

Two new organo-europium complexes (OEuCs) [Eu(btfa)₃(Bathphen)] (OEuC-1) and [Eu(tta)₃(Bathphen)] (OEuC-2) where btfa and tta are the anions of 4,4,4-trifluoro-1-phenyl-1,3-butanedione and 2-thenoyltrifluoroacetone while Bathphen = Bathophenanthroline have been synthesized and characterized. Both complexes in the solid state exhibit strong red emissions with photoluminescence quantum yields (PLQYs) of 80% ± 10%. These complexes were tested as dopants in the emitting layer (EML) to fabricate red organic light emitting diodes (R-OLEDs). Through device engineering involving the amalgamation of appropriate host materials and complexes, we have achieved exceptional overall R-OLED performance for an OEuC-2 based device, with maximum current efficiency (CE_max) = 9.91 cd A^-1, maximum power efficiency (PE_max) = 9.15 lm W^-1, maximum external quantum efficiency (EQE_max.) = 6.24%, brightness (B) of 545 cd m^-2, and (CIE)_x,y = 0.620, 0.323 at J = 10 mA cm^-2.