Strategies towards rational design of gold(iii) complexes for high-performance organic light-emitting devices

Gold(iii) complexes are attractive candidates as phosphorescent dopants in organic light-emitting devices for high-luminance full-colour displays. However, no data on the stability of such devices have been reported to date. Through rational molecular design and synthesis, we have successfully generated a new class of cyclometalated gold(iii) C^C^N complexes with tunable emission colours spanning from sky-blue to red. These complexes exhibit high photoluminescence quantum yields of up to 80% in solid-state thin films, excellent solubility and high thermal stability. Solution-processable and vacuum-deposited organic light-emitting devices based on these complexes operate with external quantum efficiencies of up to 11.9% and 21.6%, respectively, and operational half-lifetimes of up to 83,000 h at 100 cd m−2. Cyclometalated gold(iii) complexes are shown to offer tunable emission colours spanning from sky-blue to red and enable the fabrication of phosphorescent organic light-emitting devices with high external quantum efficiency and long lifetimes.