Dinuclear Design of a Pt(II) Complex Affording Highly Efficient Red Emission: Photophysical Properties and Application in Solution-Processible OLEDs

The light-emitting efficiency of luminescent materials is invariably compromised on moving to the red and near-infrared regions of the spectrum due to the transfer of electronic excited-state energy into vibrations. We describe how this undesirable “energy gap law” can be sidestepped for phosphorescent organometallic emitters through the design of a molecular emitter that incorporates two platinum(II) centers. The dinuclear cyclometallated complex of a substituted 4,6-bis(2-thienyl)pyrimidine emits very brightly in the red region of the spectrum (λmax = 610 nm, Φ = 0.85 in deoxygenated CH2Cl2 at 300 K). The lowest-energy absorption band is extraordinarily intense for a cyclometallated metal complex: at λ = 500 nm, e = 53 800 M–1 cm–1. The very high efficiency of emission achieved can be traced to an unusually high rate constant for the T1 → S0 phosphorescence process, allowing it to compete effectively with nonradiative vibrational decay. The high radiative rate constant correlates with an unusually large...