Highly Phosphorescent Planar Chirality by Bridging Two Square-Planar Platinum(II) Complexes: Chirality Induction and Circularly Polarized Luminescence
Jintong Song, Hui Xiao, Lizhi Fang, Lang Qu, Xiangge Zhou, Zong‐Xiang Xu, Cheng Yang, Haifeng Xiang
Abstract
Chiral organometallic complexes have demonstrated many potential and practical applications. However, building metal-induced chirality for square-planar complexes still remains a big challenge, because their 2D planar molecular structures are usually superimposable on their mirror images. Herein, we report a straightforward and efficient way to achieve a novel kind of planar chirality by constructing 3D double-layer molecular structures. When the achiral ligand 1,3,4-oxadiazole-2-thiol (OXT) was used to bridge two square-planar complexes, a pair of racemic R/S planar-chiral binuclear Pt(II) complexes was obtained, which could be separated by chiral high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Moreover, enantiopure R,R,R or S,S,S complexes could be prepared by the use of chiral (R)-/(S)-binaphthalene-derived OXT ligands in 99% diastereoselectivity without the use of chiral HPLC. The binaphthalene groups help to ensure good solubility and a smooth amorphous thin film morphology but have little effect on the photophysical properties. The resultant complexes display strong orange-red and near-infrared phosphorescence with quantum yields of up to 83.4% and can be applied as emitters in highly efficient solution-processed organic light-emitting diodes to achieve luminance, luminance efficiency, external quantum efficiency, and an asymmetry factor of up to 3.22 × 104 cd m–2, 28.7 cd A–1, 14.3%, and 2.0 × 10–3, respectively. With a comprehensive consideration of EL efficiency and the asymmetry factor, this is the best performance among Pt(II) complex based circularly polarized OLEDs. Therefore, this work provides a new and simple strategy to build planar chirality for chiroptical and circularly polarized luminescence applications.