Iridium complex-incorporated monodisperse
particles are prepared via surfactant-free emulsion
polymerization. For this process, a vinyl-substituted iridium complex
(IrV) is synthesized and copolymerized with 4-vinylpyridine (4VP)
and methyl methacrylate in an aqueous phase. Toluene is then used
as a cargo solvent to transfer the IrV through the aqueous phase in
the form of minidroplets. The amphiphilicity of 4VP enhances the transfer
efficiency and prevents self-quenching of the copolymerized iridium
complexes. The iridium complexes copolymerized in the particles show
good photostability for more than 6 months and ∼3.6 times the
enhanced photoluminescence quantum yield because of the scattering-induced
light extraction effect of the particles. Moreover, phosphorescent
three-dimensional photonic crystals (3D PCs) with different photonic
band gaps are fabricated by adjusting the size of the emissive monodisperse
particles. The phosphorescence of the 3D PC is tuned according to
the position of the photonic band gap to reduce the full width at
half-maximum by ∼24 nm.