Modified t-butyl in tetradentate platinum (II) complexes enables exceptional lifetime for blue-phosphorescent organic light-emitting diodes.

In blue phosphorescent dopants, the tetradentate platinum(II) complex is a promising material showing high efficiency and stability in devices. However, metal-metal-to-ligand charge transfer (MMLCT) formation leads to low photo-luminescence quantum yields (PLQYs), wide spectra, and intermolecular interaction. To suppress MMLCT, PtON-tb-TTB and PtON-tb-DTB are designed using theoretical simulation by modifying t-butyl in PtON-TBBI. Both materials effectively suppress MMLCT and exhibit high PLQYs of 99% and 78% in 5 wt% doped film, respectively. The PtON-tb-TTB and PtON-tb-DTB devices have maximum external quantum efficiencies of 26.3% and 20.9%, respectively. Additionally, the PtON-tb-DTB device has an extended lifetime of 169.3 h with an initial luminescence of 1200 nit, which is 8.5 times greater than the PtON-TBBI device. Extended lifetime because of suppressed MMLCT and smaller displacement between the lowest triplet and triplet metal-centered states compared to other dopants. The study provides an effective approach to designing platinum(II) complexes for long device lifetimes.