Blue-green emissive cationic iridium(III) complexes using partially saturated strongly-donating guanidyl-pyridine/-pyrazine ancillary ligands

A new class of cationic iridium(III) complexes of the form [(C∧N)2Ir(N∧N)][PF6] is reported, where C∧N = cyclometallating 2-phenylpyridinato, ppy, or 2-(2,4-difluorophenyl)-5′-methylpyridinato, dFMeppy, and N∧N = guanidyl-pyridine, gpy, or -pyrazine, gpz, as the ancillary ligand. A large blue-shift in the emission coupled with a 7-to-9 fold enhancement in photoluminescence quantum yield and microsecond emission lifetimes were observed for the complexes containing the partially saturated gpy ligand as compared to the benchmark complex [(ppy)2Ir(bpy)][PF6], C1, where bpy is 2,2′-bipyridine.