The tripodal ligands composed of the 1,3,5-trisubstituted cyclohexyl moiety as a molecular scaffold and 2-phenylpyridyl moieties as a coordination site were designed. The homoleptic cyclometalated fac-Ir(C^N) 3 complexes could be obtained by the reaction of IrCl 3·nH 2O with the designed tripodal ligands. The single crystal X-ray structure determination confirmed the fac configuration and a distorted octahedral geometry with three intramolecular cyclometalated 2-phenylpyridyl ligands surrounding the iridium metal center. Also, the cyclohexyl scaffold was found to serve as a flexible scaffold to induce the fac configuration. The thus-obtained homoleptic cyclometalated fac-Ir(C^N) 3 complexes exhibited a broad emission band in the emission spectra at 298 K. © 2012 The Royal Society of Chemistry.