The synthesis and properties of iridium(III)-cored dendrimers with carbazole peripherally functionalized β-diketonato dendrons

A simple convergent synthetic approach has been developed for the synthesis of iridium(III)-cored dendrimers with carbazole peripherally functionalized beta-diketonato dendrons. The zeroth- to third-generation green-emitting dendrimers were synthesized by reacting the corresponding b-diketonato dendrons with iridium(III) dimer under mild conditions with good yields, respectively. This approach proved to be modular, and could be used to prepare blue-green-emitting and red-emitting dendrimers with the same b-diketonato dendrons only by using different cyclometallating ligands. The resulting dendritic ligands and iridium(III)-cored dendrimers were well characterized. Their photoluminescent properties both in solution and in the solid state were tested. It was found that all the dendrimers retained the photophysical properties of the corresponding small analogues with high emission quantum yields (0.06-0.30). Preliminary results indicated that these dendrimers functionalized carbazole units exhibited distinct light-harvesting potential, resulting in a strong intense emission from the iridium core of the dendrimers.