Grant: Idea to Innovation

Highly stable and efficient blue phosphorescent emitters are the ultimate challenge in the research and development of organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) because they are very difficult to achieve. They are the key ingredients for highly energy efficient full-color information display devices (e.g. computer and TV monitors, cellular phones etc) and next generation lighting devices (e.g. lighting wall panels, tiles, or stripes) based on OLED technologies. Currently no stable blue phosphorescent compounds are available for OLEDs. As a consequence, they are in high demand by OLED industry. Our group has recently discovered a new class of highly stable and efficient blue phosphorescent platinum compounds that can be used in blue OLEDs. The key feature of the new blue emitters is that they all contain a macrocyclic chromophore that is not only responsible for the deep blue color produced by the molecule, but also restricts the molecule to a very rigid structure, preventing it from undergoing structural distortion in OLEDs, a preliminary cause of the instability of platinum based emitters in OLEDs. Preliminary evaluation indicates that the new class of blue emitters has exceptional stability, thus very promising for applications in OLEDs. This proposal seeks funding for (a) improved synthetic methods for large-scale synthesis of the new blue emitters so that samples can be provided to OLEDs companies for evaluation; (b) the investigation of performance, lifetime and stability of the new materials in OLEDs, and (c) the feasibility validation of the new materials by OLEDs industry.