Heteroleptic Copper(I) Complexes Prepared from Phenanthroline and Bis-Phosphine Ligands: Rationalization of the Photophysical and Electrochemical Properties

• Published in: Inorganic chemistry Vol. 57; no. 24; pp. 15537 - 15549
• Main Authors: Leoni, Enrico, Mohanraj, John, Holler, Michel, Mohankumar, Meera, Nierengarten, Iwona, Monti, Filippo, Sournia-Saquet, Alix, Delavaux-Nicot, Béatrice, Jean-Franco̧is Nierengarten, Armaroli, Nicola
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Chemical Society 17.12.2018
• Subjects: Chemical Sciences; Coordination chemistry
• ISSN: 0020-1669; 1520-510X
• DOI: 10.1021/acs.inorgchem.8b02879

The electronic and structural properties of ten heteroleptic [Cu­(NN)­(PP)]+ complexes have been investigated. NN indicates 1,10-phenanthroline (phen) or 4,7-diphenyl-1,10-phenanthroline (Bphen); each of these ligands is combined with five PP bis-phosphine chelators, i.e., bis­(diphenylphosphino)­methane (dppm), 1,2-bis­(diphenylphosphino)­ethane (dppe), 1,3-bis­(diphenylphosphino)­propane (dppp), 1,2-bis­(diphenylphosphino)­benzene (dppb), and bis­[(2-diphenylphosphino)­phenyl] ether (POP). All complexes are mononuclear, apart from those based on dppm, which are dinuclear. Experimental dataalso taken from the literature and including electrochemical properties, X-ray crystal structures, UV–vis absorption spectra in CH2Cl2, luminescence spectra and lifetimes in solution, in PMMA, and as powdershave been rationalized with the support of density functional theory calculations. Temperature dependent studies (78–358 K) have been performed for selected complexes to assess thermally activated delayed fluorescence. The main findings are (i) dependence of the ground-state geometry on the crystallization conditions, with the same complex often yielding different crystal structures; (ii) simple model compounds with imposed C 2v symmetry ([Cu­(phen)­(PX3)2]+; X = H or CH3) are capable of modeling structural parameters as a function of the P–Cu–P bite angle, which plays a key role in dictating the overall structure of [Cu­(NN)­(PP)]+ complexes; (iii) as the P–Cu–P angle increases, the energy of the metal-to-ligand charge transfer absorption bands linearly increases; (iv) the former correlation does not hold for emission spectra, which are red-shifted for the weaker luminophores; (v) the larger the number of intramolecular π-interactions within the complex in the ground state, the higher the luminescence quantum yield, underpinning a geometry locking effect that limits the structural flattening of the excited state. This work provides a general framework to rationalize the structure–property relationships of [Cu­(NN)­(PP)]+, a class of compounds of increasing relevance for electroluminescent devices, photoredox catalysis, and solar-to-fuels conversion, which so far have been investigated in an unsystematic fashion, eluding a comprehensive understanding.