Unveiling the key role of metal coordination mode and ligand's side groups on the performance of deep-red light-emitting electrochemical cell

Three novel deep-red to near-infrared (DR to NIR) emitters based on mononuclear and dinuclear ruthenium(II) complexes with bulky structures were presented herein. For the first time, the unusual effects of metal coordination mode on the electroluminescence properties of a binuclear emitter were investigated. Unexpectedly, the mononuclear complexes showed superior performance in deep-red light-emitting electrochemical cells (DR-LEC) compared to the dinuclear complex. Likewise, substituting various ancillary ligands improved the radiance and lifetime of devices by 2.5 and 1.5 times, respectively. To the best of our knowledge, the obtained efficiency is among the best reported to date for DR-LECs based on ruthenium polypyridyl complexes.