Synthesis, Photophysical, and Electroluminescent Device Properties of Zn(II)-Chelated Complexes Based on Functionalized Benzothiazole Derivatives

New Zn(II)-chelated complexes based on benzothiazole derivatives, including substituted functional groups such as methyl (MeZn), methoxy (MeOZn), or fluorenyl unit (FuZn), are investigated to produce white-light emission. 2-(2-Hydroxyphenyl)benzothiazole derivatives in toluene and DMSO exhibit excited-state intramolecular proton transfer (ESIPT), leading to a large Stokes shift of the fluorescence emission. However, in methanol they exhibit no ESIPT due to the intermolecular hydrogen bonding between the 2-(2-hydroxyphenyl)benzothiazole derivative and methanol. Their Zn(II)-chelated complexes exhibit the absorption band red-shifted at 500 nm in nonpolar solvent and the absorption band blue-shifted at about 420 nm in protic solvent. In multilayer electroluminescent devices, methyl-substituted Zn(II)-chelated complex (MeZn) exhibits excellent power efficiency and fluorene-substituted Zn(II)-chelated complex (FuZn) has a high luminance efficiency (1 cd m(-2) at 3.5 V, 10 400 cd m(-2) at 14V). The EL spectra of Zn(II)-chelated complexes based on benzothiazole derivatives exhibit broad emission bands. in addition, their electron-transport property for red-green-blue (RGB) organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) is systematically studied, in comparison with that of Alq(3). The results demonstrate the promising potential of MeZn as an electron-transporting layer (ETL) material in preference to Alq(3), which is widely used as an ETL material.