Photophysical performances and morphology of phosphorescent electrospun fibres fabricated from iridium complex/PMMA blends

Abstract

Yellow phosphorescent electrospun (ES) fibres were successfully fabricated from a binary blend of iridium complex/poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) by a single spinneret, whose diameters range from 350 to 1300 nm. Owing to the geometrical confinement of the electrospinning process, the aggregation of iridium complex Y1 in the ES fibres is much smaller than that in the spin-coated films. Moreover, the photoluminescence quantum efficiency of the ES fibres is much higher than that of the spin-coated films. The lifetimes of ES fibres become shorter and the diameters of ES fibres become larger with increasing the ratio of Y1 in Y1/PMMA blend from 1 to 10%. In the scanning electron microscope images, the surface structure on the Y1/PMMA blend fibres was smooth and non-porous, which probably because the high boiling point solvent of N,N-dimethylformamide was used in the electrospinning process. The present work demonstrates that phosphorescent ES fibres can be prepared from the binary blend of iridium complexes/PMMA, which could be used in wearable organic light-emitting diodes.