Synthesis and optophysical properties of blue-emitting iridium (III) complex bearing oxadiazole-based picolinic acid derivative

Abstract

An iridium (III) bis[(4,6-difluorophenyl)pyridinato-N, C2][6-(6′-(4″-(5‴-phenyl-1‴, 3‴, 4‴-oxadiazole- 2‴-yl) phenoxy) hexyloxy picolinate) was synthesized and characterized by 1H NMR and elementary analysis in order to study the effect of ancillary ligand of the oxadiazole-based picolinic acid derivative on optophysical properties of its iridium complex, and further to obtain an iridium complex with highly-efficient blue emission. The thermal stability, UV absorption and photoluminescent properties of this iridium complex were investigated. Compared with iridium (III) bis[(4,6-difluorophenyl)pyridinato-N, C2](picolinate) reported as a highly-efficient blue electroluminescent material, this iridium complex bearing an oxadiazole-based picolinic acid derivative presents higher thermal stability, more intense UV absorption at 291 nm and similar photoluminescent spectrum peaked at 469 nm. This indicates that tuning ancillary ligand of picolinic acid with an oxadiazole unit can improve the optophysical properties of its iridium complex.