No abstract

A comprehensive photophysical study is presented which compares the ground- and excited-state properties of four platinum(II) terpyridyl acetylide compounds of the general formula [Pt(tBu3tpy)(CCR)]+, where tBu3tpy is 4,4',4' '-tri-tert-butyl-2,2':6',2' '-terpyridine and R is an alkyl or aryl group. [Ru(tBu3tpy)3]2+ and the pivotal synthetic precursor [Pt(tBu3tpy)Cl]+ were also investigated in the current work. The latter two complexes possess short excited-state lifetimes and were investigated using ultrafast spectrometry while the other four compounds were evaluated using conventional nanosecond transient-absorption spectroscopy. The original intention of this study was to comprehend the nature of the impressive excited-state absorptions that emanate from this class of transition-metal chromophores. Transient-absorbance-difference spectra across the series contain the same salient features, which are modulated only slightly in wavelength and markedly in intensity as a function of the appended acetylide ligand. More intense absorption transients are observed in the arylacetylide structures relative to those bearing an alkylacetylide, consistent with transitions coupled to the pi system of the ancillary ligand. Reductive spectroelectrochemical measurements successfully generated the electronic spectrum of the tBu3tpy radical anion in all six complexes at room temperature. These measurements confirm that electronic absorptions associated with the tBu3tpy radical anion simply do not account for the intense optical transitions observed in the excited state of the Pt(II) chromophores. Transient-trapping experiments using the spectroscopically silent reductive quencher DABCO clearly demonstrate the loss of most transient-absorption features in the acetylide complexes throughout the UV, visible, and near-IR regions following bimolecular excited-state electron transfer, suggesting that these features are strongly tied to the photogenerated hole which is delocalized across the Pt center and the ancillary acetylide ligand.

The photophysical and electrochemical properties of a platinum(II) diimine complex bearing the bidentate diacetylide ligand tolan-2,2'-diacetylide (tda), Pt(dbbpy)(tda) [dbbpy = 4,4'-di-tert-butyl-2,2'-bipyridine] (1), are compared with two reference compounds, Pt(dbbpy)(C[triple bond]CPh)(2) (2) and Pt(dppp)tda [dppp = 1,3-bis(diphenylphosphino)propane] (3), respectively. The X-ray crystal structure of 1 is reported, which illustrates the nearly perfect square planarity exhibited by this metallacycle. Chromophore 2 possesses low-lying charge-transfer excited states analogous to 1, whereas structure 3 lacks such excited states but features a low-lying platinum-perturbed tda intraligand triplet manifold. In CH(2)Cl(2), 1 exhibits a broad emission centered at 562 nm at ambient temperature, similar to 2, but with a higher photoluminescence quantum yield and longer excited-state lifetime. In both instances, the photoluminescence is consistent with triplet-charge-transfer excited-state parentage. The rigidity imposed by the cyclic diacetylide ligand in 1 leads to a reduction in nonradiative decay, which enhances its room-temperature photophysical properties. By comparison, 3 radiates highly structured tda-localized triplet-state phosphorescence at room temperature. The 77 K emission spectrum of 1 in 4:1 EtOH/MeOH becomes structured and is quantitatively similar to that measured for 3 under the same conditions. Because the 77 K spectra are nearly identical, the emissions are assigned as (3)tda in nature, implying that the charge-transfer states are raised in energy, relative to the (3)tda levels in 1 in the low-temperature glass. Nanosecond transient absorption spectrometry and ultrafast difference spectra were determined for 1-3 in CH(2)Cl(2) and DMF at ambient temperature. In 1 and 2, the major absorption transients are consistent with the one-electron reduced complexes, corroborated by reductive spectroelectrochemical measurements performed at room temperature. As 3 does not possess any charge-transfer character, excitation into the pipi* transitions of the tda ligand generated transient absorptions in the relaxed excited state assigned to the ligand-localized triplet state. In all three cases, the excited-state lifetimes measured by transient absorption are similar to those measured by time-resolved photoluminescence, suggesting that the same excited states giving rise to the photoluminescence are responsible for the absorption transients. ESR spectroscopy of the anions 1- and 2- and reductive spectroelectrochemistry of 1 and 2 revealed a LUMO based largely on the pi* orbital of the dbbpy ligand. Time-dependent density functional theory calculations performed on 1-3 both in vacuum and in a CH(2)Cl(2) continuum revealed the molecular orbitals, energies, dipole moments, and oscillator strengths for the various electronic transitions in these molecules. A DeltaSCF-method-derived shift applied to the calculated transition energies in the solvent continuum yielded good agreement between theory and experiment for each mo...