Highly Photoluminescent Nonconjugated Polymers for Single-Layer Light Emitting Diodes

The design, synthesis, and characterization of solution-processable polymers for organic light emitting diode (OLED) applications are presented. Theoretical calculations were employed to identify a carbazole-pyrimidine based building block as an optimized host material for the emissive layer of an idealized OLED stack. Efficient, free radical homopolymerization and copolymerization with a novel methacrylate-based heteroleptic iridium(III) complex leads to a library of nonconjugated polymers with pendant semiconductors. Optoelectronic characterization reveals impressive photoluminescence quantum yield (PLQY) values exceeding 80% and single-layer OLEDs show optimal performance for copolymers containing 6 mol % of iridium comonomer dopant.