Triple Ligand Engineered Gold Nanoclusters with Enhanced Fluorescence and Device Compatibility for Efficient Electroluminescence Light-Emitting Diodes

Gold nanoclusters (Au NCs) are potential emitters for electroluminescent light-emitting diodes (EL-LEDs) but restricted by the limited photoluminescence quantum yield (PLQY) and poor device compatibility. Herein, triple ligand engineered Au NCs enable the fabrication of Au NC-based LEDs with improved EL efficiency. Rigidified triple ligand shells greatly reduce the nonradiative transition and thus increase the PLQY of Au NCs from 2.1 to 73.4%. Most importantly, this strategy significantly improves the compatibility between Au NCs and charge transport materials in EL-LED fabrication. As a result, the EL-LEDs reach a maximum brightness of 1104 cd/m2 and an external quantum efficiency of 5.1%, which is the highest recorded for any reported Au NC-based EL-LEDs.