Luminescent Liquid Crystals Based on Platinum(II) Complexes*

Luminescent liquid crystals, which hold outstanding optical anisotropy, fluidity and intrinsic photoluminescence characteristic, show a great potential to be widely applied in liquid crystal display, organic light-emitting diode, optical information storage, etc. Yet, it still remains a big challenge to enhance and tune the luminescent properties. Herein, we report a highly luminescent liquid crystals based on platinum(II) complexes. These complexes are able to relax from the excited state back to the ground state through spin-forbidden transitions, giving rise to distinct photochemical and photophysical features in comparison with traditional organic fluorophores. Flexible side chains are found to play a significant role in enabling the liquid crystal phase due to the strong intermolecular interaction between the complex’s square-planar structure.