Enhancing Molecular Aggregations by Intermolecular Hydrogen Bonds to Develop Phosphorescent Emitters for High-Performance Near-Infrared OLEDs

Phosphorescent near-infrared (NIR) organic light-emitting devices (OLEDs) have drawn increasing attention for their promising applications in the fields such as photodynamic therapy and night-vision readable displays. Here, three simple phosphorescent Pt(II) complexes are synthesized, and their intermolecular interactions are investigated in crystals and neat films by X-ray single crystal diffraction and grazing-incidence wide-angle X-ray scattering, respectively. The photophysical properties, molecular aggregation (including Pt-Pt interaction), molecular packing orientation, and electron transport ability are all influenced by the strong intermolecular hydrogen bonds. Consequently, the nondoped OLEDs based on tBu-Pt and F-Pt show electroluminescent emissions in NIR region with the highest external quantum efficiencies of 13.9% and 16.7%, respectively.