Spectroscopic and Luminescence Studies on Square-Planar Platinum(II) Complexes with Anionic Tridentate 3-Bis(2-pyridylimino)isoindoline Derivatives

Reactions of 1,3-bis(2-pyridylimino)isoindoline (HL1), 1,3-bis(2-pyridylimino)benz(f)isoindoline (HL2), or 5,6-dihydro-2,3-diphenyl-5-(pyridin-2-ylimino)pyrrolo[3,4-b]pyrazin-7-ylidene)pyridin-2-amine (HL3) with Pt(tht)(2)Cl-2 (tht = tetrahydrothiophene) afforded the corresponding Pt(L)Cl complexes. A series of neutral platinum(II) alkynyl complexes Pt(L)(C CR) were prepared by reactions of the precursors Pt(L)Cl with alkynyl ligands through Cul-catalyzed platinum acetylide sigma coordination. Crystal structural determination of Pt(L3)Cl (3), Pt(L1)(C CPh) (4), and Pt(L1)(C CC6H4But-4) (6) by X-ray crystallography revealed that the neutral platinum(Pi) complexes with monoanionic tridentate L ligands display more perfect square-planar geometry than that in platinum(II) complexes with neutral tridentate 2,2':6,2 ''-terpyridyl ligands. Both the Pt(L)Cl and Pt(L)(C CC6H4R-4) complexes exhibit low-energy absorption at 400-550 nm, arising primarily from pi -> pi*(L) intraligand (IL) and 5d(Pt) -> pi*(L) metal-to-ligand charge-transfer (MLCT) transitions as suggested from density functional theory calculations. They display bright-orange to red room-temperature luminescence in fluid dichloromethane solutions with microsecond to submicrosecond ranges of emissive lifetimes and 0.03-3.79% quantum yields, originating mainly from (IL)-I-3 and (MLCT)-M-3 excited states. Compared with the emissive state in Pt(L)Cl complexes, substitution of the coordinated Cl with C CC6H4R-4 in Pt(L)(C CC6H4R-4) complexes induces an obviously enhanced contribution from the (3)[pi-(C CC6H4R-4) -> pi*(L)] ligand-to-ligand charge-transfer (LLCT) triplet state. The photophysical properties can be finely tuned by modifying both the L and alkynyl ligands. The calculated absorption and emission spectra in dichloromethane coincide well with those measured in a fluid dichloromethane solution at ambient temperature.