Development of the tris-chelated polypyridyl ruthenium(II) complex as a solid-state light emitter

A series of tris-chelated polypyridylruthenium(II) complex-containing polyurethanes has been synthesized and evaluated as emitters in solid-state thin film devices. These new materials were found to give rise to luminance levels of about 200 cd/m(2) with external quantum efficiencies in the 0.5-1% range. Transient capacitance and conductance measurements were made to elucidate the origin of the slow device response times of these materials. Much faster- responding devices were fabricated by depositing a ruthenium(II) complex onto a hole-transporting layer of poly(p-phenylene vinylene).