Deep red to near-infrared emitting rhenium(I) complexes: synthesis, characterization, electrochemistry, photophysics, and electroluminescence studies.

A series of triarylamine-containing tricarbonyl rhenium(I) complexes, [BrRe(CO)3 (N^N)] (N^N=5,5'-bis(N,N-diaryl-4-[ethen-1-yl]-aniline)-2,2'-bipyridine), has been designed and synthesized by introducing a rhenium(I) metal center into a donor-π-acceptor-π-donor structure. All of the complexes showed an intense broad structureless emission band in dichloromethane at around 680-708 nm, which originated from an excited state of intraligand charge transfer ((3)ILCT) character from the triarylamine to the bipyridine moiety. Upon introduction of the bulky and electron-donating pentaphenylbenzene units attached to the aniline groups, the emission bands were found to be red shifted. The nanosecond transient absorption spectra of two selected complexes were studied, which were suggestive of the formation of an initial charge-separated state. Computational studies have been performed to provide further insight into the origin of the absorption and emission. One of the rhenium(I) complexes has been utilized in the fabrication of organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs), representing the first example of the realization of deep red to near-infrared rhenium(I)-based OLEDs with an emission extending up to 800 nm.