A series of tetradentate Pt­(II) emitters containing fused 5/6/6 metallocycles have been designed and synthesized. Molecular geometries play a critical role in determining the photophysical properties. Their emission spectra are significantly affected by the geometries of the molecular core skeletons, the substituents, even hydrogen atoms, and their positions, which are further supported by X-ray crystallographic analyses and theoretical calculations. The generation of excimer emissions is observed in the tetradentate 5/6/6 Pt­(II) emitters for the first time and found to be concentration-dependent both in the solution and solid states. All of the Pt­(II) emitters have high photoluminescent quantum efficiency of up to 100% and luminescent lifetime as short as 1.4 μs at room temperature, achieving a radiative rate of 7.14 × 105 s–1. Their emission color can be easily tuned to cover the whole visible region (λmax = 464–632 nm) through selective synthetic modification of the heteroaromatic rings of the ligands. Pt­(1-ptz)-based sky blue organic light-emitting diode (OLED) demonstrates a maximum external quantum efficiency (EQE) of 14.5%, yet maintains an EQE of 12.7% at a high brightness of 1000 cd/m2. This work demonstrates that these tetradentate Pt­(II) complexes can act as efficient phosphorescent emitters for OLED applications.

A CuCl-catalyzed Ullmann-type C-N cross-coupling reaction of carbazoles and 2-bromopyridine derivatives has been developed for the synthesis of N-heteroarylcarbazole derivatives employing 1-methyl-imidazole and t-BuOLi as ligand and base, respectively, both of which are found to significantly promote the reaction. Low cost and low loading of both catalyst and ligand, together with high reaction yields, render this practical reaction to be suitable for large-scale preparations and could be useful in material science.

Deep-blue-light-emitting materials are urgently desired in high-performance organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) for full-color display and solid-state lighting applications. However, the development of stable and efficient deep-blue emitters remains a great challenge. Herein, a series of stable and efficient tetradentate Pd(II)-complex-based deep-blue emitters with rigid 5/6/6 metallocycles and no F atom were designed and synthesized. These deepblue emitters employ various isoelectronic five-membered heteroarylring-containing ligands to exhibit extremely narrow emission spectra peaking at 439−443 nm with a full width at half-maximum (fwhm) of only 22−38 nm in 2-methyltetrahydrofuran at room temperature. In particular, the design of an intramolecular hydrogen bond enabled the 1-phenyl-1,2,3-trazole-based Pd(II) complexes to achieve CIE y < 0.1 (0.069−0.078; CIE is Commission Internationale de L'Eclairage). Theoretical calculation and natural transition orbital analysis reveal that these deep-blue materials emit light exclusively from their ligand (carbazole)-centered ( 3 LC) states. Moreover, the triplet excited-state property can be efficiently regulated through ligand modification with isoelectronic oxazole and thiazole rings or pyridine rings, resulting in sky-blue-to-yellow materials, which emit light originating from an admixture of metal-to-ligand chargetransfer ( 3 MLCT) and intraligand charge-transfer states. The newly developed Pd(II) complexes are strongly emissive in various matrixes with a quantum efficiency of up to 51% and also highly thermally stable with a 5% weight-reduction temperature (ΔT 5% ) of up to 400 °C. Deep-blue OLEDs with CIE y < 0.1 employing Pd(II) complexes as emitters were successfully fabricated for the first time. This study demonstrates that the Pd(II) complexes can act as excellent phosphorescent light-emitting materials through rational molecular design and also provide a valuable method for the development of Pd(II)-complex-based efficient and stable deepblue emitters.

An efficient and practical CuCl-catalyzed hydroxylation of N-heteroarylcarbazole bromide for the preparation of N-heteroarylcarbazolyl phenols with a broad functional group scope and yield up to 98% was developed. It was found that both the ligand and base played critical roles in the functional group transformation and that different products could be generated by changing the base for some substrates. t-BuONa was demonstrated to be a better base for the catalytic system to avoid the formation of the ether byproduct. In addition, this approach was suitable for large-scale preparation and was successfully applied in the gram-scale synthesis of phosphorescent emitters PtNON and PdNON, demonstrating its practicability in organic synthesis methodology and materials science. Furthermore, the X-ray crystal diffraction, DFT calculations, and photophysical properties were also investigated for the metal complexes.

An efficient and practical synthesis of 2,7-bis­(4,4,5,5-tetramethyl-1,3,2-dioxaborolan-2-yl)­triphenylene 4 from two cheap commodity chemicals in five steps with a total yield of 48.6% was developed. This process had been successfully applied in the synthesis of electron transport material (ETM) BPyTP-2 in the gram scale with a total yield of 47.2%. This practical development of the key intermediate 4 opens a door in its further application in the synthesis of other triphenylene-based ETMs and host materials in the materials field.