Metal Complexes of Click-Derived Triazoles and Mesoionic Carbenes: Electron Transfer, Photochemistry, Magnetic Bistability, and Catalysis

Even though the existence of 1,2,3-triazoles has been known for more than a century, the recent discovery of a copper(I) catalyzed version of this reaction has attributed unprecedented importance to these compounds. Coordination and organometallic chemists have benefited from this modular synthetic route, and have accessed ligands based on both the triazoles as well as the triazolylidenes. The wide variation of steric and electronic properties that can be achieved for this ligand class has made them useful for generating metal complexes with various applications. Examples include, among others: magnetically switchable molecules, electro- and photo-active molecules, molecules for light-emitting electrochemical cells, dyes for dye-sensitized solar cells and a host of homogeneous catalytic processes. In this contribution, we present recent developments in this field with examples of some selected ligands. The focus is on systems developed in our group over the past few years.