Luminescent Bi- and Trimetaiiic TADF Metai Complexes with Smart Ligands for OLED Applications (T01#)

• Subject Area: Organic Molecular Chemistry - Synthesis and Characterisation
• Term: from 2017 to 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 142808194

The new interdisciplinary project aims at strengthening the collaboration between synthesis, spectroscopy, and theory with a special focus on the development of new 3MET-compounds to be used in materials sciences (Organic Light-emitting Diodes, OLEDs). Based on the successful synthesis of dinuclear and tetranuclear Cu(I) halide complexes in collaboration with theory, variations of emission spectra could be explained by metal-to-ligand and halogen-to-ligand transitions. Furthermore, sometimes high photoluminescence quantum yields for this emission process were found. It was shown that these 3MET materials exhibit thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF). It was demonstrated that the studied 3MET compounds retain their structural integrity both in solution and in amorphous thin films. Based on these results, we manufacture solution processed OLED prototypes in a transfer project, which exhibit the highest electroluminescence quantum efficiency (EQE) ever demonstrated for Cu(I) compounds, even as of today.

• DFG Programme: CRC/Transregios (Transfer Project)
• Subproject of: TRR 88: Cooperative Effects in Homo- and Heterometallic Complexes (3MET)
• Applicant Institution: Rheinland-Pfälzische Technische Universität Kaiserslautern-Landau
• Business and Industry: CYNORA GmbH
• Project Head: Professor Dr. Stefan Bräse