Electronic structures and spectral properties of rhenium (I) tricarbonyl cyclopenta[b]dipyridine complexes containing different aromatic ring groups

Computational Design of Rhenium(I) Carbonyl Complexes for Anticancer Photodynamic Therapy

New Re(I) carbonyl complexes are proposed as candidates for photodynamic therapy after investigating the effects of the pyridocarbazole-type ligand conjugation, addition of substituents to this ligand, and replacement of one CO by phosphines in [Re(pyridocarbazole)(CO)3(pyridine)] complexes by means of the density functional theory (DFT) and time-dependent DFT. We have found, first, that increasing the conjugation in the bidentate ligand reduces the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO)-lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) energy gap of the complex, so its absorption wavelength red-shifts. When the enlargement of this ligand is carried out by merging the electron-withdrawing 1H-pyrrole-2,5-dione heterocycle, it enhances even more the stabilization of the LUMO due to its electron-acceptor character. Second, the analysis of the shape and composition of the orbitals involved in the band of interest indicates which substituents of the bidentate ligand and which positions are optimal for reducing the HOMO-LUMO energy gap. The introduction of electron-withdrawing substituents into the pyridine ring of the pyridocarbazole ligand mainly stabilizes the LUMO, whereas the HOMO energy increases primarily when electron-donating substituents are introduced into its indole moiety. Each type of substituents results in a bathochromic shift of the lowest-lying absorption band, which is even larger if they are combined in the same complex. Finally, the removal of the π-backbonding interaction between Re and the CO trans to the monodentate pyridine when it is replaced by phosphines PMe3, 1,4-diacetyl-1,3,7-triaza-5-phosphabicyclo[3.3.1]nonane (DAPTA), and 1,4,7-triaza-9-phosphatricyclo[5.3.2.1]tridecane (CAP) causes another extra bathochromic shift due to the destabilization of the HOMO, which is low with DAPTA, moderate with PMe3, but especially large with CAP. Through the combination of the PMe3 or CAP ligands with adequate electron-withdrawing and/or electron-donating substituents at the pyridocarbazole ligand, we have found several complexes with significant absorption at the therapeutic window. In addition, according to our results on the singlet-triplet energy gap, all of them should be able to produce cytotoxic singlet oxygen.

Luminescent Re(I) terpyridine complexes for OLEDs: what does the DFT/TD-DFT probe reveal?

The electronic structure and spectroscopic properties of a series of rhenium(I) terpyridine complexes were investigated using density functional theory (DFT) and time dependent density functional theory (TD-DFT) methods. The influence of different substituent groups on the optical and electronic properties of Re(I) terpyridine complexes has also been explored. The reorganization energy calculations show that the substituted Re(I) terpyridine complexes are better electron transport materials with high quantum efficiency in OLED devices due to their high electron transport mobility and low λ(electron) values, whereas the unsubstituted complex shows relatively balanceable charge transfer abilities with the higher efficiency in organic light emitting devices (OLEDs). An NBO analysis reveals that n→σ* interactions are mainly responsible for the ground state stabilization of all the complexes. QTAIM results show that in all cases, Re-CO bonds are shared type transient interactions as reported in the other metal ligand complexes. The absorption is associated with (1)MLCT/(1)LLCT/(1)ILCT character while the emission transition has (3)MLCT/(3)LLCT/(3)ILCT character as revealed by a natural transition orbital (NTO) analysis. The higher quantum yields reported for the complexes 4-6 are found to be closely related to both its smaller ΔE(S1-T1), higher μ(S1), E(T1) and moderate (3)MLCT character. The calculated results show that Re(I) terpyridine complexes, particularly complexes 4-6, are suitable candidates for OLED materials.