Design di complessi di Ir(III) polimerizzabili per nuovi metallopolimeri luminescenti

The project focused on the synthesis of iridium-based luminescent metallopolymers, which were obtained by introducing Ir(III) cyclometalated cationic complexes with general formula [Ir(C^N)2(N^N)]+, as side units in acrylic polymeric matrices. The synthetic process involved the radical copolymerization of Ir(III) complexes with methyl methacrylate, MMA. The complexes prepared for this purpose were represented by cationic compounds [Ir(ppy)2Lx]+ and [Ir(4CN-1npy)2Lx]+, and were synthesized from bifunctional N^N ligands capable of acting at the same time as ligands towards the metal centre and as monomers for the copolymerization. The studied complexes show significant luminescent performance and a display tuneable emission colour over the visible spectral range, through chemical modification of the ligands set. It was confirmed that the phosphorescent properties of discrete complexes were transferred to metallopolymers, resulting in hybrid polymeric materials that are transparent and capable of emitting different colours depending on the type of the introduced complex. For each metallapolymer, four materials were prepared characterized by different amounts of Ir(III) (ppmIr = 5, 10, 20 and 40 respectively) in order to compare the different emission intensities. Beyond showing considerable interest from a fundamental research perspective, the most immediate application area of these new luminescent hybrid materials concerns evaluating their use in Luminescent Solar Concentrator (LSC) technology.