Tunable Redox Potential, Optical Properties, and Enhanced Stability of Modified Ferrocene-Based Complexes

We report a series of ferrocene-based derivatives and their corresponding oxidized forms in which the introduction of simple electron donating groups like methyl or tert-butyl units on cyclopentadienyl-rings afford great tunability of Fe+III/Fe+II redox potentials from +0.403 V down to -0.096 V versus saturated calomel electrode. The spin forbidden d-d transitions of ferrocene derivatives shift slightly toward the blue region with an increasing number of electron-donating groups on the cyclopentadienyl-rings with very little change in absorptivity values, whereas the ligand-to-metal transitions of the corresponding ferricinium salts move significantly to the near-IR region. The electron-donating groups also contribute in the strengthening of electron density of Fe+III d-orbitals, which therefore improves the chemical stability against the oxygen reaction. Further, density functional theory calculations show a reducing trend in outer shell reorganization energy with an increasing number of the electron donating units.