A series of copper complexes with carbazole and oxadiazole moieties: Synthesis, characterization and luminescence performance

In this paper, various moieties of ethyl, carbazole and oxadiazole are attached to 2-thiazol-4-yl-1H-benzoimidazole to form a series of diamine ligands. Their corresponding Cu(I) complexes are also synthesized using bis(2-(diphenylphosphanyl)phenyl) ether as the auxiliary ligand. Crystal structures, thermal property, electronic nature and luminescence property of these Cu(I) complexes are discussed in detail. These Cu(I) complexes are found to be efficient green-emitting ones in solutions and the emissive parameters are improved largely by the incorporation of substituent moieties. Detailed analysis suggests that the effective suppression of solvent-induced exciplex quenching is responsible for this phenomenon. On the other hand, the introduction of substituent moieties exerts no obvious influence on molecular structure, thermal stability and emitting-energy of the Cu(I) complexes, owing to their absence from inner coordination sphere.