Carbene metal amide photoemitters: tailoring conformationally flexible amides for full color range emissions including white-emitting OLED† †Electronic supplementary information (ESI) available: Detailed experimental procedures, single-crystal X-ray diffraction data, photophysical and OLED device characterization, and computational details. CCDC 1912300 for Au1 (Monoclinic), 1912299 for Au2, 1911240 for Au4, 1911241 for Au5, 1911239 for Au6, 1911237 for Au7, 1911238 for Au8 contains the suppleme

Conformationally flexible “Carbene–Metal–Amide” (CMA) complexes of copper and gold show photoemissions across the visible spectrum, including mechanochromic behavior which led to the first CMA-based white light-emitting OLED. Conformationally flexible “Carbene–Metal–Amide” (CMA) complexes of copper and gold have been developed based on a combination of sterically hindered cyclic (alkyl)(amino)carbene (CAAC) and 6- and 7-ring heterocyclic amide ligands. These complexes show photoemissions across the visible spectrum with PL quantum yields of up to 89% in solution and 83% in host-guest films. Single crystal X-ray diffraction and photoluminescence (PL) studies combined with DFT calculations indicate the important role of ring structure and conformational flexibility of the amide ligands. Time-resolved PL shows efficient delayed emission with sub-microsecond to microsecond excited state lifetimes at room temperature, with radiative rates exceeding 10 6 s –1 . Yellow organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) based on a 7-ring gold amide were fabricated by thermal vapor deposition, while the sky-blue to warm-white mechanochromic behavior of the gold phenothiazine-5,5-dioxide complex enabled fabrication of the first CMA-based white light-emitting OLED.