Palladium(0) NHC complexes: a new avenue to highly efficient phosphorescence

Chem Sci. 2015 May 1;6(5):3248-3261. doi: 10.1039/c4sc03914a. Epub 2015 Apr 2.

Abstract

We report the first examples of highly luminescent di-coordinated Pd(0) complexes. Five complexes of the form [Pd(L)(L')] were synthesized, where L = IPr, SIPr or IPr* NHC ligands and L' = PCy3, or IPr and SIPr NHC ligands. The photophysical properties of these complexes were determined in degassed toluene solution and in the solid state and contrasted to the poorly luminescent reference complex [Pd(IPr)(PPh3)]. Organic light-emitting diodes were successfully fabricated but attained external quantum efficiencies of between 0.3 and 0.7%.