Photo- and electroluminescence properties of complexes of europium with ligands incorporated in a poly-N-vinylcarbazole chain

Abstract

New metal–polymer complexes have been synthesized that combine Eu(<span style="font-variant: small-caps">iii</span>) with a copolymer of N-vinylcarbazole and a methacrylate comonomer-ligand that contains chelate 2-(2-pyridyl)-quinoline groups. The photo- and electroluminescence properties of these metal–polymer complexes, containing from 0.6 to 5 mol% europium (in terms of a link of the copolymer ligand) have been studied. It is shown that the electroluminescence intensity decreases with increasing concentration of europium in these complexes, and this is probably associated with concentration quenching. In this case, the minimum switch-on voltage of the LEDs in which metal–polymer complexes are used as light-emitting layers is less than 6 V. The maximum luminance achieved is 40 cd/m<sup>2</sup>.