This thesis describes investigations into the photophysical properties of luminescent materials and their application in optoelectronic devices such as light emitting diodes and photodetectors. The materials used were all solution processable because of the interest in low cost processing of organics. I have investigated the photophysics of 1,4,5,8,9,12-hexamethyltriphenylene, a triphenylene derivative which has its luminescence enhanced by the addition of methyl groups. These groups change the planar shape of the triphenylene molecule into a twisted one, changing the symmetry of the molecule and increasing its dipole moment in absorption and emission by ~4 fold. This increased its rate of radiative deexcitation by ~20 times. In addition, the twisted shape of the molecule prevents intermolecular interactions and concentration effects from affecting the luminescence. This results in an efficient solid-state photoluminescence quantum yield of 31%. This thesis also includes an investigation into phosphorescent polymer dendrimers, designed to have suitable viscosities in solution for inkjet printed OLED applications. A photophysical study of the intra-chain aggregation effects on the luminescence was undertaken in both homopolymers and copolymers with high energy gap spacer units. Using double dendrons to increase the steric protection of the luminescent cores, the best homopolymers achieved 12.1% external quantum efficiency (39.3 cd/A) at 100 cd/m² brightness and the best co-polymer achieved 14.7% EQE (48.3 cd/A) at 100 cd/m². This compares favourably with 11.8% EQE for the best phosphorescent polymer and 16% for the best solution processed dendrimer OLED previously reported. Finally I have applied a solution processed enhancement layer to silicon photodiodes to enhance their ultraviolet response. Using a blend of materials to give favourable absorption and emission properties, 61% external quantum efficiency was achieved at 200 nm, which is better than the 20-30% typical for vacuum deposited lumogen enhancement layers used commercially.

Mit Seitenkettenpolystyrenen wurde ein neues Synthesekonzept für phosphoreszente polymere LED-Materialien aufgestellt und experimentell verifiziert. Zunächst erfolgten auf Grundlage strukturell einfacher Verbindungen Untersuchungen zum Einfluss von Spacern zwischen aktiven Seitengruppen und dem Polystyrenrückgrat. Es wurden Synthesemethoden für die Monomere etabliert, durch die aktive Elemente - Elektronen- und Lochleiter - mit und ohne diesen Spacer zugänglich sind. Durch Kombination dieser Monomere waren unter Hinzunahme von polymerisierbaren Iridium-Komplexen in unterschiedlicher Emissionswellenlänge statistische Terpolymere darstellbar. Es wurde gezeigt, dass die Realisierung bestimmter Verhältnisse zwischen Loch-, Elektronenleiter und Triplettemitter in ausreichender Molmasse möglich ist. Die Glasstufen der Polymere zeigten eine deutliche Strukturabhängigkeit. Auf die Lage der Grenzorbitale übten die Spacer nahezu keinen Einfluss aus. Die unterschiedlichen Makromoleküle kamen in polymeren Licht emittierenden Dioden (PLEDs) zum Einsatz, wobei ein deutlicher Einfluss der Spacereinheiten auf die Leistungscharakteristik der PLEDs festzustellen war: Sowohl Effizienz, Leuchtdichte wie auch Stromdichte waren durch den Einsatz der kompakten Makromoleküle ohne Spacer deutlich höher. Diese Beobachtungen begründeten sich hauptsächlich in der Verwendung der aliphatischen Spacer, die den Anteil im Polymer erhöhten, der keine Konjugation und damit elektrisch isolierende Eigenschaften besaß. Diese Schlussfolgerungen waren mit allen drei realisierten Emissionsfarben grün, rot und blau verifizierbar. Die besten Messergebnisse erzielte eine PLED aus einem grün emittierenden und spacerlosen Terpolymer mit einer Stromeffizienz von etwa 28 cd A-1 (bei 6 V) und einer Leuchtdichte von 3200 cd m-2 (bei 8 V). Ausgehend von obigen Ergebnissen konnten neue Matrixmaterialien aus dem Bereich verdampfbarer Moleküle geringer Molmasse in das Polystyrenseitenkettenkonzept integriert werden. Es wurden Strukturvariationen sowohl von loch- wie auch von elektronenleitenden Verbindungen als Homopolymere dargestellt und als molekular dotierte Systeme in PLEDs untersucht. Sieben verschiedene lochleitende Polymere mit Triarylamin-Grundkörper und drei elektronendefizitäre Polymere auf der Basis von Phenylbenzimidazol konnten erfolgreich in den Polymeransatz integriert werden. Spektroskopische und elektrochemische Untersuchungen zeigten kaum eine Veränderung der Charakteristika zwischen verdampfbaren Molekülen und den dargestellten Makromolekülen. Diese ladungstransportierenden Makro-moleküle wurden als polymere Matrizes molekular dotiert und lösungsbasiert zu Einschicht-PLEDs verarbeitet. Als aussichtsreichstes Lochleiterpolymer dieser Reihe, mit einer Strom-effizenz von etwa 33 cd A-1 (bei 8 V) und einer Leuchtdichte von 6700 cd m-2 (bei 10 V), stellte sich ein Triarylaminderivat mit Carbazolsubstituenten heraus. Als geeignetstes Matrixmaterial für die Elektronenleitung wurde ein meta-verknüpftes Di-Phenylbenzimidazol ausfindig gemacht, das in der PLED eine Stromeffizienz von etwa 20 cd A-1 (bei 8 V) und eine Leuchtdichte von 7100 cd m-2 (bei 10 V) erzielte. Anschließend wurden die geeignetsten Monomere zu Copolymeren kombiniert: Die lochleitende Einheit bildete ein carbazolylsubstituiertes Triarylamin und die elektronen-leitende Einheit war ein disubstituiertes Phenylbenzimidazol. Dieses Copolymer diente im Folgenden dazu, PLEDs zu realisieren und die Leistungsdaten mit denen eines Homopolymer-blends zu vergleichen, wobei der Blend die bessere Leistungscharakteristik zeigte. Mit dem Homopolymerblend waren Bauteileffizienzen von annähernd 30 cd A-1 (bei 10 V) und Leuchtdichten von 6800 cd m-2 neben einer Verringerung der Einsatzspannung realisierbar. Für die abschließende Darstellung bipolarer Blockcopolymere wurde auf die Nitroxid-vermittelte Polymerisation zurückgegriffen. Mit dieser Technik waren kontrollierte radikalische Polymersiationen mit ausgewählten Monomeren in unterschiedlichen Block-längen durchführbar. Diese Blockcopolymere kamen als molekular dotierte Matrizes in phosphoreszenten grün emittierenden PLEDs zum Einsatz. Die Bauteile wurden sowohl mit statistischen Copolymeren, wie auch mit Homopolymerblends in gleicher Zusammensetzung aber unterschiedlichem Polymerisationsgrad hinsichtlich der Leistungscharakteristik verglichen. Kernaussage dieser Untersuchungen ist, dass hochmolekulare Systeme eine bessere Leistungscharakteristik aufweisen als niedermolekulare Matrizes. Über Rasterkraft-mikroskopie konnte eine Phasenseparation in einem Größenbereich von etwa 10 nm für den hochmolekularen Homopolymerblend nachgewiesen werden. Für die Blockcopolymere war es nicht möglich eine Phasenseparation zu beobachten, was vorwiegend auf deren zu geringe Blocklänge zurückgeführt wurde. / A new synthetic approach for the synthesis of side chain polystyrenes was established and their use as phosphorescent polymers for polymer light emitting diodes (PLEDs) is shown by experiments. An assay was introduced to clarify influences on electroluminescent behavior for RGB-colored phosphorescent terpolymers with N,N-Di-p-tolyl-aniline as hole-transporting unit, 2-(4-biphenyl)-5-(4-tert-butylphenyl)-1,3,4-oxadiazole (tert-BuPBD) as electron-transporting unit, and different iridium complexes in RGB-colors as triplet emitting materials. All monomers were attached with spacer moieties to the “para” position of a polystyrene. PLEDs were built to study the electro-optical behavior of these materials. The gist was a remarkable influence of hexyl-spacer units to the PLED performance. For all three colors only very restricted PLED performances were found. In comparison RGB-terpolymers were synthesized with directly attached charge transport materials to the polymer backbone. For this directly linked systems efficiencies were 28 cd A−1 @ 6 V (green), 4.9 cd A−1 @ 5 V (red) and 4.3 cd A−1 @ 6 V (bluish). In summary it is assumed that an improved charge percolation pathways regarding to the higher content of semiconducting molecules and an improved charge transfer to the phosphorescent dopand in the case of the copolymers without spacers are responsible for the better device performance comparing the copolymers with hexyl spacers. It was found that the approach of the directly connected charge transport materials at the nonconjugated styrene polymer backbone is favored for further investigations as shown in the following. A series of styrene derived monomers with triphenylamine-based units, and their polymers have been synthesized and compared with the well-known structure of polymer of N,N′-bis(3-methylphenyl)-N,N′-diphenylbenzidine with respect to their hole-transporting behavior in PLEDs. A vinyltriphenylamine structure was selected as a basic unit, functionalized at the para positions with the following side groups: diphenylamine, 3-methylphenyl-aniline, 1- and 2-naphthylamine, carbazole, and phenothiazine. The polymers are used in PLEDs as host polymers for blend systems. It is demonstrated that two polymers are excellent hole-transporting matrix materials for these blend systems because of their good overall electroluminescent performances and their comparatively high glass transition temperatures. For the carbazole-substituted polymer (Tg = 246 °C), a luminous efficiency of 35 cd A−1 and a brightness of 6700 cd m−2 at 10 V is accessible. The phenothiazine-functionalized polymer (Tg = 220 °C) shows nearly the same outstanding PLED behavior. Hence, both these polymers outperform the well-known polymer of N,N′-bis(3-methylphenyl)-N,N′-diphenylbenzidine, showing only a luminous efficiency of 7.9 cd A−1 and a brightness of 2500 cd m−2 (10 V). Furthermore, novel styrene functionalized monomers with phenylbenzo[d]imidazole units and the corresponding homopolymers are prepared. The macromolecules are used as matrices for phosphorescent dopants to prepare PLEDs. The devices exhibit current efficiencies up to 38.5 cd A−1 at 100 cd m−2 and maximum luminances of 7400 cd m−2 at 10 V. Afterwards the most efficient monomers of this investigations were combined and statistical copolymers were synthesized. As hole-transporting monomer the carbazole substituted triarylamine and as electron-transporting monomer a disubstituted phenylbenzoimidazole was selected. This statistical copolymer was used in the following as matrix material for phosporescent PLEDs and the device performance was compared with a matrix system of a polymer blend matrix system of corresponding homopolymers. With this homopolymer blend efficiencies of about 30 cd A-1 at 10 V and luminances of 6800 cd m-2 beside a decreased onset voltage were realized. Finally bipolar blockcopolymers of structural basic monomers were synthesized via nitroxide mediated polymerization. With these technique and the chosen hole- and electron-transporting monomers a controlled radical polymerization was realized leading to blockcopolymers in different block lengths. These blockcopolymers were used as molecular doped matrix systems in green phosphoreszent PLEDs. The devices were compared in regard to their performances with PLEDs made of statistical copolymers and homopolymer blends. It was found that high molecular systems show a better device performance compared to low molecular polymer matrices. With atomic force microscopy it is shown that a phase separation takes place for the high molecular blend of homopolymers. For the synthesized blockcopolymers no phase separation could be verified, mainly because of the comparatively low molecular weight of these systems.

Ein vielversprechendes Design für organische lichtemittierende Dioden (OLEDs) verwendet eine Wirt-Gast-Strategie durch Dispergieren einer kleinen Menge eines hocheffizienten Emitters (der Gast) in eine passende Transportmatrix (der Wirt). Die Aufgabe des Wirts ist den Exzitonentranport zum Emitter sicherzustellen und den Zerfall von Triplet-Exzitonen zu verhindern, und damit eine hohe Bauteilperformance zu erreichen. Die vorliegende Arbeit konzentriert sich auf die Beziehung zwischen Molekülstruktur und optoelektrischer Eigenschaften von Carbazol/Dibenzothiophen-Derivaten. Die Untersuchung umfasst sieben dieser Derivate für den Wirt, bei denen die Carbazoleinheit als Donator und die Dibenzothiopheneinheit als Akzeptor fungiert, wobei beide durch einen oder mehrere Phenylabstandshalter verbunden sind. Diese Wahl der Wirtsmaterialien erlaubt es den Einfluss der erweiterten Phenylabstandshalter und der unterschiedlichen molaren Verhältnisse von Akzeptor zu Donator zu untersuchen. Es ergab sich, dass eine kürzere Phenylabstandshalterlänge die Bauteilperformance durch eine größere Löcher- und Elektronendichte in der Emitterschicht verbessert; und ein 1:1 Carbazol-zu-Dibenzothiophen-Verhältnis der Bauteilperformance zuträglich ist, da es zu einem Ladungsträgergleichgewicht in der Emitterschicht führt. Diese Arbeit zeigt, unter Verwendung dieser Wirtsmaterialien, blaue FIrpic-basierte phosphoreszierende OLEDs (PhOLEDs) und grüne 4CzIPN-basierte thermisch aktivierte verzögerte Phosphoreszenz (TADF) OLEDs. Die blauen PhOLEDs und grünen TADF OLEDs mit mDCP zeigten Effizienzen von 43 cd/A (18.6%) beziehungsweise 66 cd/A (21%). / A particularly interesting organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) design adopts a host-guest strategy by dispersing a small amount of highly efficient emitter (the guest) into an appropriate transport matrix (the host). The host is utilized to transfer excitons to the emitter and to prevent triplet exciton quenching, thus high device performance can be achieved. The present thesis focuses on the relationship between the molecular structure and opto-electrical properties of carbazole/dibenzothiophene derivatives. The investigation encompasses seven of these derivatives for the host, in which the carbazole unit acts as a donor and the dibenzothiophene as an acceptor while they are linked through phenyl spacer(s). This choice of host materials enables to assess the impact of extended phenyl spacers and different acceptor to donor molar ratios. It was found that decreasing the phenyl spacer length enhances the device performance due to the larger both hole and electron densities in the emitting layer; and a 1:1 carbazole to dibenzothiophene ratio is favorable for device performance, since it balances the charge carriers in the emitting layer. Using these host materials, the work presented in this thesis demonstrates high-performance blue FIrpic-based phosphorescent OLEDs (PhOLEDs) and green 4CzIPN-based thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) OLEDs. The blue PhOLEDs and green TADF OLEDs with mDCP showed efficiencies of 43 cd/A (18.6%) and 66 cd/A (21%), respectively.

Luminescent materials find numerous applications in recent times and have enriched human lives in several different ways. From display and lighting technologies to security, sensing and biological investigations, luminescent organic compounds have become indispensible and often preferred over their inorganic counterparts. The versatility of organic materials arises from their comparative low costs, ease of fine-tuning, low toxicity and the possibility to develop flexible devices. Even until very recent times, the investigations and usage of organic luminescent materials were mostly limited to solution-state properties. However, with progress of available characterisation techniques and parallel development of their usage in solid-state devices and other applications (e.g. security, forensics, sensing etc.), significantly greater attention has been paid to the development and investigations of solid-state emissive organic materials. In solid-state applications, apart from the molecular properties of any given material, their cumulative i.e. bulk physical properties are of even greater importance. Thus, investigations of structure-property relationships in organic luminescent compounds to understand their molecular and bulk properties are of fundamental interest. In this thesis, NPI (1,8-naphthalimide) and BODIPY (boron-dipyrromethene) dyes were investigated to provide a broad overview of their structure-property correlations. Among commonly encountered organic luminescent materials, NPIs and BODIPYs have emerged as two broad classes of luminescent organic compounds, finding applications as functional luminescent materials in various fields. However, lack of understanding for controlling the cumulative emissive properties of these compounds has limited their usage as active solid-state emitters in various applications. This thesis presents several new insights into the molecular and bulk emissive properties of these two classes of luminescent dyes (NPIs and BODIPYs). The contents of the six chapters contained in this thesis are summarised below. Chapter 1 summarises the available understanding of the basic concepts of photoluminescence and the design strategies to develop solid-state luminescent and AIE (aggregation-induced emission) active materials. This chapter also emphasises in the basic nature of the NPI and BODIPY compounds, their substitution patterns and their inherent characteristics and touches upon the relatively unexplored properties of NPI and BODIPY based materials. The importance and scope of the work reported in the thesis is outlined at the end of the chapter. Chapter 2 describes a detailed investigation of a series of seven (4-oxoaryl substituted) NPI compounds (1-7) providing an insight into the molecular and cumulative photophysical behaviour of these compounds. The low ICT characteristics of the NPIs, coupled with the twisted geometry, facilitated solid-state luminescence in these materials. The solution and solid-state luminescent properties of these compounds can be directly correlated to their structural rigidity, nature of substituents and solid-state intermolecular interactions (e.g. π-π stacking, C-H•••O interactions etc.). The solid-state crystal structures of the NPI siblings are profoundly affected by the pendant substituents. All of the NPIs (1-7) show antiparallel dimeric π-π stacking interactions in the solid-state which can further extend in parallel, alternate, orthogonal or lateral fashion depending on the steric and electronic nature of the C-4′ substituents. Structural investigations including Hirsfeld surface analysis methods reveal that while strongly interacting systems show weak to moderate emission in their condensed states, weakly interacting systems show strong emission yields under the same conditions. The nature of packing and extended structures also affects the emission colors of the NPIs in the solid-state. DFT computational studies were utilized to understand the molecular and cumulative electronic behavior of the NPIs. Apart from the investigation of solid-state luminescence, other functional potentials of these NPIs were also explored. One of the compounds (i.e. 4) shows chemodosimetric response towards aqueous Hg(II) species with a ‘turn-on’ response. Also, depending on the molecular flexibility of the compounds, promising AIEE (aggregation-induced emission enhancement) features were observed in these NPIs. Later (in Chapter 3), we developed a systematic investigation in a series of purely organic NPIs, restricting various parameters, to attain a thorough understanding of such AIEE properties. Chapter 3 describes a detailed experimental and computational study in order gain an insight into the AIE (aggregation-induced emission) and AIEE mechanisms in NPI compounds. Systematic structural perturbation was used to fine tune the luminescence properties of three new 1,8-naphthalimides (8-10) in solution and as aggregates. The NPIs (8-10) show blue emission in solution state and the fluorescence quantum yields depend on their molecular rigidity. In concentrated solutions of the NPIs, intermolecular interactions were found to result in quenching of fluorescence. In contrast, upon aggregation (in THF:H2O mixtures), two of the NPIs show aggregation-induced-emission-enhancement (AIEE). The NPIs also show moderately high solid-state emission quantum yields (~10-12.7 %). The AIEE behaviors of the NPIs depend on their molecular rigidity and nature of intermolecular interactions. The NPIs (8-10) show different extents of intermolecular (π-π and C-H•••O) interactions in their solid-state structures depending on their substituents. Detailed photophysical, computational and structural investigations suggest that only an optimal balance of structural flexibility and intermolecular communication is the effective recipe for achieving AIEE characteristics in these NPIs. Chapter 4 presents the design, synthesis and detailed investigations and potential applications of a series of NPI-BODIPY dyads (11-13). The NPI and BODIPY moieties in these dyads are electronically separated by oxoaryl bridges and the compounds only differ structurally with respect to methyl substitutions on the BODIPY fluorophore. The NPI and BODIPY moieties retain their optical features in these molecular dyads (11- 13). Dyads 11-13 show dual emission in solution state originating from the two separate fluorescent units. The variations of the dual emission in these compounds are controlled by the structural flexibility of the systems. The dyads also show significant AIES (Aggregation-Induced-Emission Switching) features upon formation of nano-aggregates in THF-H2O mixtures with visual changes in emission from green to red color. Whereas the flexible and aggregation prone system (i.e. compound 11) shows aggregation-induced enhancement of emission, rigid systems with less favorable intermolecular interactions (i.e. compound 12-13) show aggregation-induced quenching of emission. The emission-intensity vs. the structural-flexibility correlations were found to be reverse in solution and aggregated states. Photophysical and structural investigations suggest that the intermolecular interactions (e.g. π-π stacking etc.) play major role in controlling emission of these compounds in aggregated states. Similar trends were also observed in the solid-state luminescence of these compounds. The applications of the luminescent dyads 11-13 as live-cell imaging dyes was also investigated. Chapter 5 describes investigations of photophysical properties of a series of six BODIPY dyes (14-19) in which there is a systematic alteration of a common -C6H4Si(CH3)3 substituent. Inrelated constitutional isomers, the systematic increment of steric congestion and lowering of molecular symmetry around the BODIPY core result in a steady increment of solution and solid- state fluorescence quantum yields. The increasing fluorescence quantum yields (solution, solid state) with increasing steric congestions show that the molecular free rotation and aggregation-induced fluorescence quenching of BODIPYs can be successfully suppressed by lowering the flexibility of the molecules. Photophysical and DFT investigations reveal that the electronic band gap in any set of these constitutional isomers remain almost similar. However, the crystal structures of the compounds reveal that the solid-state colour and quantum yields of the compounds in solid-state are also related to the nature of intermolecular interactions. Chapter 6 demonstrates the use of DFT computational methods to understand the effect of alkyl groups in governing the basic structural and electronic aspects of BODIPY dyes. As demonstrated in Chapter 4 and Chapter 5, apparently electronically inactive alkyl groups can be of immense importance to control the overall photophysics of BODIPYs. In this context, a systematic strategy su was utilized considering all possible outcomes of constitutionally-isomeric molecules to understand the effects of alkyl groups on the BODIPY molecules. Four different computational methods were employed to ascertain the unanimity of the observed trends associated with the molecular properties. In line with experimental observations, it was found that alkyl substituents in BODIPY dyes situated at 3/5-positions effectively participate in stabilization as well as planarization of such molecules. Screening of all the possible isomeric molecular systems was used to understand the individual properties and overall effects of the typical alkyl substituents in controlling several basic properties of such BODIPY molecules.