Estimation of Energetic and Charge Transfer Properties of Iridium(III) Bis(2-phenylpyridinato-N,C2')acetylacetonate by Electrochemical Methods

Iridium(III) bis(2-phenylpyridinato-$N,C^{2^{\prime}}$)acetylacetonate ($(ppy)_2Ir(acac)$), a green dopant used in organic light-emitting devices (OLEDs), was subjected to electrochemical characterization to estimate its formal oxidation potential ($E^{o^{\prime}}$), HOMO energy level ($E_{HOMO}$), electron transfer rate constant ($k^{o^{\prime}}$), and diffusion coefficient ($D_o$). The employed combination of voltammetric methods, i.e., cyclic voltammetry (CV), chronocoulometry (CC), and the Nicholson method, provided meaningful insights into the electron transfer kinetics of $(ppy)_2Ir(acac)$, allowing the determination of $k^{o^{\prime}}$ and $D_o$. The quasi-reversible oxidation of $(ppy)_2Ir(acac)$ furnished information on $E^{o^{\prime}}$ and $E_{HOMO}$, allowing the latter parameter to be easily estimated by electrochemical methods without relying on expensive and complex ultraviolet photoemission spectroscopic (UPS) measurements.