Optical and electrochemical properties of spirobifluorene iridanaphthalene complexes

Three new spirobifluorene iridaaromatic compounds bearing electron-withdrawing or electron-donor substituents or another iridanaphthalene moiety have been synthesized and structurally characterized. Thorough experimental and theoretical evaluation revealed that these novel systems present a high thermal, air and electrochemical stability as well as low optical and electronic energy gap values with a significant redshift of the absorption maximum in the UV-Vis spectra and predicted remarkably higher first hyperpolarizabilities compared to their organic counterparts. Therefore, the combination of a metallaaromatic system with a spirobifluorene moiety leads to the design and development of new spirobifluorene derivatives. These new systems have shown interesting optical and electronic properties making them of interest for future applications in optoelectronics.