Neutral Pt(II) complexes bearing tridentate dianionic 2,6-bis(1H-1,2,4-triazol-5-yl)pyridine and ancillary alkyl-substituted pyridine ligands have been synthesized and characterized. They show bright green emission, reaching 73% photoluminescence quantum yield in deareated chloroform solution, which can be assigned to a predominantly metal-perturbed ligand-centered phosphorescence. We have followed two strategies to preserve the spectral purity of the monomeric species by varying the substituents on the chromophoric or on the ancillary ligands. However, variations in the substitution patterns only modestly affected the radiative and radiationless deactivation rate constants of the monomers. Photophysical and electrochemical properties have been measured for all the complexes and correlated with calculations using time-dependent density functional theory. The electroluminescence spectra of the brightest, nonaggregating derivative showed a better color purity than that of iridium(III) tris(phenylpyridine), thus proving that aggregation was hindered in a running electroluminescent device.

The preparation and properties of a series of gold nanoclusters protected by thiolated peptides based on the alpha-aminoisobutyric acid (Aib) unit are described. The peptides were devised to form 0-3 C=O...H-N intramolecular hydrogen bonds, as required by their 3(10)-helical structure. The monolayer-protected clusters (MPCs) were prepared, using a modified version of the two-phase Brust-Schiffrin preparation, and fully characterized with (1)H NMR spectrometry, IR and UV-vis absorption spectroscopies, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The MPCs were obtained with core diameters in the range of 1.1-2.3 nm, depending on the reaction conditions. Structured peptides formed smaller clusters. The smallest MPC obtained is in agreement with the average formula Au(38)Pep(18). The results showed that the chemical integrity of the peptide is maintained upon monolayer formation and that the average number of peptide ligands per gold cluster is typically 75-85% the value calculated for alkanethiolate MPCs of similar sizes. The IR and NMR spectra indicated that in the monolayer the peptides are involved in both intra- and interligand C=O...H-N hydrogen bonds.

The rate constant of intramolecular electron transfer through oligopeptides based on the alpha-aminoisobutyric acid residue was determined as a function of the peptide length and found to depend weakly on the donor-acceptor separation. By measuring the electron-transfer activation energy and estimating the energy gap between donor and bridge, we were able to discard the electron hopping mechanism.

We report on the design, synthesis, and characterization of four new heteroleptic iridium(III) complexes bearing 2′,6′-difluoro-2,3′-bipyridine and pyridyl-azole ligands. The photophysical properties and cyclic voltammetry of the complexes were also investigated. All compounds display highly efficient genuine blue phosphorescence (λ max ca. 440 nm), at room temperature in solution and in thin film, with quantum yield in the range 0.77− 0.87 and 0.62−0.93, respectively. We found that introduction of the bulky tert-butyl substituents on the cyclometalated or azolated chelates can effectively reduce detrimental aggregation, which results in a loss of color purity. Comprehensive density functional theory (DFT) and time-dependent DFT (TD-DFT) approaches have been performed on the ground and excited states of the here reported complexes, in order to gain deeper insights into their structural and electronic features as well as to ascertain the nature of the excited states involved into the electronic absorption processes. Moreover, electron spin density analysis and total electron density difference at the lowest-lying triplet state (T 1 ) were performed for shedding light onto the nature of the emitting excited state. Finally, the fabrication of the organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs), employing the bulkiest derivative among the here reported phosphorescent dopants, was successfully made. The devices exhibit remarkable maximum external quantum efficiency (EQE) as high as 7.0%, in nonoptimized devices, and power efficiency (PE) of 4.14 lm W −1 , together with a true-blue chromaticity CIE x,y = 0.159, 0.185 recorded at 300 cd m −2 .