Great collaboration with Eduardo Anaya-Plaza and Mauri Kostiainen! This is our second paper together. Now we designed ionic emitters with aggregation induced emission (AIE) mechanism that feature i) an easy ion polarizability to assist charge injection and ii) a reversible electrochemical behavior. The hydrophilic yet repulsive effect of pyridiniumbased cationic moieties is balanced with hydrophobic variables (long alkyl chains or counterion chemistry), leading to i) a control between monomeric/aggregate state ruling photoluminescence, ii) redox behavior, and iii) enhanced ion conductivity in thin films. This resulted in light-emitting electrochemical cells, reaching values of 0.19 lm/W at ca. 50 cd/m2. Overall, this design rule will be key to advance ionic active species for optoelectronics.
More details here: https://pubs.rsc.org/en/Content/ArticleLanding/2024/SC/D3SC05941C