Novel yellow phosphorescent iridium(III) complex with broad emission: Synthesis, photophysical properties and efficient electroluminescence

High-performance yellow emitter is the key to achieve high-quality complementary white organic electroluminescence. Herein, a novel yellow iridium(III) complex (Ir1) is synthesized by using chlorine-bearing cyclometalated ligand under the mild condition. The complex is confirmed by nuclear magnetic resonance and X-ray diffraction analysis. In degassed CH₂Cl₂, the complex shows bright yellow phosphorescent emission with high luminescent quantum yield of 51% and lifetime of 1.29 µs at room temperature. Notably, the full width at half maximum (FWHM) of emission spectrum is up to 101 nm. Moreover, complex Ir1 is served as triplet emitter in organic light-emitting device. The device exhibits broad yellow emission at 568 nm with FWHM of 88 nm, maximum brightness of 18 310 cd/m², external quantum efficiency of 20.8%, current efficiency of 58.2 cd/A and power efficiency of 48.3 lm/W.