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Copper(I) complexes with planar chirality realize efficient circularly polarized electroluminescence

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Abstract

Chiral organometallic emitters hold great promise in potential and practical applications of circularly polarized organic light-emitting diodes (CP-OLEDs). However, developing luminescent earth-abundant organometallic complexes concurrently exhibiting circularly polarized luminescence (CPL) and high quantum efficiency remains a formidable challenge. In this study, we introduced a typical planar chiral skeleton of a [2.2]paracyclophane moiety into earth-abundant copper(I) complexes with the goal of realizing efficient CPL and thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) simultaneously. Two pairs of proof-of-the-concept copper(I) enantiomers, Rp/Sp-MAC*-Cu-CzP and Rp/Sp-MAC*-Cu-CNCzP, were developed using planar chiral [2.2] paracyclophane-based donor ligands in a carbene-metal-amide (CMA) motif. Both panels of enantiomers not only exhibited significant mirror-image CPL signals but also displayed distinct TADF nature with fast reverse intersystem crossing rates of up to 108 s−1. The resultant OLEDs based on the MAC*-Cu-CzP enantiomers manifested efficient circularly polarized electroluminescence with excellent external quantum efficiencies of 13.2% and ultraslow efficiency roll-off (7.7% at 10,000 nits). This article not only demonstrates one of the best performances for CP-OLEDs based on earth-abundant organometallic complexes but also represents the first example of CP-OLEDs from CMA complexes to our knowledge.

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Acknowledgements

Shaolong Gong gratefully acknowledges financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (52022071 and 51873158). The numerical calculations in this paper have been done on the supercomputing system in the Supercomputing Center of Wuhan University. We are particularly grateful to Prof. Y.-X. Zheng’s group (Nanjing University) for providing the support of the CPL measurements.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry, Hubei Key Lab on Organic and Polymeric Optoelectronic Materials, Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430072, China

    Ao Ying, Lisi Zhan, Yao Tan & Shaolong Gong

  2. Shenzhen Key Laboratory of New Display and Storage Materials, College of Materials Science and Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, 518060, China

    Xiaosong Cao & Chuluo Yang

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  1. Ao Ying
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  2. Lisi Zhan
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  4. Xiaosong Cao
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  6. Shaolong Gong
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Correspondence to Shaolong Gong.

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The supporting information is available online at chem.scichina.com and link.springer.com/journal/11426. The supporting materials are published as submitted, without typesetting or editing. The responsibility for scientific accuracy and content remains entirely with the authors.

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Ying, A., Zhan, L., Tan, Y. et al. Copper(I) complexes with planar chirality realize efficient circularly polarized electroluminescence. Sci. China Chem. 66, 2274–2282 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11426-023-1635-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11426-023-1635-5

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