Aggregation-induced
emission (AIE) materials can exhibit intense
luminescence in the aggregated or solid state, which are highly desirable
for OLED application. However, only limited research results on developing
AIE-active PtII complexes in electroluminescence (EL) application
have been reported so far. Herein, a series of AIE-active PtII(C^N)(N-donor ligand)Cl complexes have been developed. Their chemical
structures have been determined by NMR, MS, and X-ray crystallography
characterization. Theoretical results including the frontier molecular
orbitals, the simulated UV–vis spectra, and natural transition
orbitals (NTO) have been employed to insightfully interpret their
photophysical properties. It has also been found that a much higher
degree of molecular aggregation in these PtII complexes
should be required to induce phosphorescent AIE than that for the
fluorescent AIE behavior. These AIE-active PtII complexes
can exhibit very strong emission in poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA)
films with the phosphorescence quantum yield (Φp)
of ∼72.0%, while that in dilute solution is just about 4.7%.
Accordingly, on the basis of these AIE-active PtII complexes,
the optimized OLEDs fabricated by the simple solution-processed strategy
can achieve high EL efficiencies with a maximal external efficiency
(ηext) of 28.4%, a maximal current efficiency (ηL) of 75.9 cd A–1, and a maximal power efficiency
(ηP) of 62.7 lm W–1. Considering
the rarity for EL investigations of the AIE-active PtII complexes, the concerned results realized by these PtII(C^N)(N-donor ligand)Cl complexes should provide valuable clues for
exploring AIE-active PtII phosphorescent complexes with
high EL performance.