An ionic terfluorene derivative for saturated deep-blue solid state light-emitting electrochemical cells

In this study, we obtained saturated deep-blue electroluminescence (EL) from solid state light-emitting electrochemical cells (LECs) incorporating the ionic terfluorene derivative 1, which we synthesized through covalent tethering of methylimidazolium moieties as pendent groups of terfluorene. Compound 1 exhibited the deep-blue emission, extremely high quantum yield, and reversible redox behavior that are characteristic of terfluorene derivatives. LEC devices incorporating terfluorene 1 exhibited deep-blue EL with CIE coordinates of (0.159, 0.115) and (0.151, 0.122) in the absence and presence, respectively, of the ionic liquid (IL) BMIM[middle dot]PF6. The peak external quantum efficiency and peak power efficiency of 1 in the presence of the IL reached 1.14% and 1.24 lm W-1, respectively. These CIE coordinates are the most saturated blue emissions ever reported for LECs.