Mononuclear and dinuclear heteroleptic Cu(I) complexes based on pyridyl-triazole and DPEPhos with long-lived excited-state lifetimes

Reaching strong absorption up to 700 nm with new benzo[g]quinoxaline-based heteroleptic copper(I) complexes for light-harvesting applications

Heteroleptic copper(I) complexes, with a diimine as a chromophoric unit and a bulky diphosphine as an ancillary ligand, have the advantage of a reduced pseudo Jahn-Teller effect in their excited state over the corresponding homoleptic bis(diimine) complexes. Nevertheless, their lowest absorption lies generally between 350 to 500 nm. Aiming at a strong absorption in the visible by stable heteroleptic Cu(I) complexes, we designed a novel diimine based on 4-(benzo[g]quinoxal-2'-yl)-1,2,3-triazole derivatives. The large π-conjugation of the benzoquinoxaline moiety shifted bathochromically the absorption with regard to other diimine-based Cu(I) complexes. Adding another Cu(I) core broadened the absorption and extended it to considerably longer wavelengths. Moreover, by fine-tuning the structure of the dichelating ligand, we achieved a panchromatic absorption up to 700 nm with a high molar extinction coefficient of 8000 M^-1 cm^-1 at maximum (λ = 570 nm), making this compound attractive for light-harvesting antennae.

Kinetic Resolution of Azaarylethynyl Tertiary Alcohols by Chiral Brønsted Acid Catalysed Phosphine-Mediated Deoxygenation

A chiral Brønsted acid catalysed phosphine-mediated deoxygenation protocol is reported. This metal-free method provides a precise kinetic resolution platform for azaarylethynyl tertiary alcohols, which are a broad category of biologically and synthetically important azaarene derivatives. In addition to providing an efficient method for the first asymmetric preparation of these tertiary alcohols, the strategy facilitates the construction of azaaryl-functionalized allenes with good to excellent enantioselectivities. The high selectivity factors (s up to 235), broad substrate scope, and ability to convert azaaryl compounds into both chiral tertiary alcohols and allenes robustly underscore the efficiency and promising utility of this method. The practicability is further validated by the successful synthesis of deuterated allenes with high ee values and substantial incorporation of deuterium using inexpensive D₂ O as the deuterium source.

Photoactive Copper Complexes: Properties and Applications

Photocatalyzed and photosensitized chemical processes have seen growing interest recently and have become among the most active areas of chemical research, notably due to their applications in fields such as medicine, chemical synthesis, material science or environmental chemistry. Among all homogeneous catalytic systems reported to date, photoactive copper(I) complexes have been shown to be especially attractive, not only as alternative to noble metal complexes, and have been extensively studied and utilized recently. They are at the core of this review article which is divided into two main sections. The first one focuses on an exhaustive and comprehensive overview of the structural, photophysical and electrochemical properties of mononuclear copper(I) complexes, typical examples highlighting the most critical structural parameters and their impact on the properties being presented to enlighten future design of photoactive copper(I) complexes. The second section is devoted to their main areas of application (photoredox catalysis of organic reactions and polymerization, hydrogen production, photoreduction of carbon dioxide and dye-sensitized solar cells), illustrating their progression from early systems to the current state-of-the-art and showcasing how some limitations of photoactive copper(I) complexes can be overcome with their high versatility.

Visible-emitting Cu(i) complexes with N-functionalized benzotriazole-based ligands

Bidentate benzotriazole-based N-ligands are suited for the preparation of luminescent heteroleptic copper(i) complexes with noticeable emissions related to 3MLCT transitions.

Time-Resolved Spectroscopy and Electronic Structure of Mono-and Dinuclear Pyridyl-Triazole/DPEPhos-Based Cu(I) Complexes

Chemical and spectroscopic characterization of the mononuclear photosensitizers [(DPEPhos)Cu(I)(MPyrT)]0/+ (CuL, CuLH) and their dinuclear analogues (Cu2 L', Cu2 L'H2 ), backed by (TD)DFT and high-level GW-Bethe-Salpeter equation calculations, exemplifies the complex influence of charge, nuclearity and structural flexibility on UV-induced photophysical pathways. Ultrafast transient absorption and step-scan FTIR spectroscopy reveal flattening distortion in the triplet state of CuLH as controlled by charge, which also appears to have a large impact on the symmetry of the long-lived triplet states in Cu2 L' and Cu2 L'H2 . Time-resolved luminescence spectroscopy (solid state), supported by transient photodissociation spectroscopy (gas phase), confirm a lifetime of some tens of μs for the respective triplet states, as well as the energetics of thermally activated delayed luminescence, both being essential parameters for application of these materials based on earth-abundant copper in photocatalysis and luminescent devices.

Cyan-Emitting Cu(I) Complexes and Their Luminescent Metallopolymers

Copper complexes have shown great versatility and a wide application range across the natural and life sciences, with a particular promise as organic light-emitting diodes. In this work, four novel heteroleptic Cu(I) complexes were designed in order to allow their integration in advanced materials such as metallopolymers. We herein present the synthesis and the electrochemical and photophysical characterisation of these Cu(I) complexes, in combination with ab initio calculations. The complexes present a bright cyan emission (λem ~ 505 nm) in their solid state, both as powder and as blends in a polymer matrix. The successful synthesis of metallopolymers embedding two of the novel complexes is shown. These copolymers were also found to be luminescent and their photophysical properties were compared to those of their polymer blends. The chemical nature of the polymer backbone contributes significantly to the photoluminescence quantum yield, paving a route for the strategic design of novel luminescent Cu(I)-based polymeric materials.

Various Structural Design Modifications: para-Substituted Diphenylphosphinopyridine Bridged Cu(I) Complexes in Organic Light-Emitting Diodes

The well-known system of dinuclear Cu(I) complexes bridged by 2-(diphenylphosphino)pyridine (PyrPhos) derivatives Cu₂X₂L₃ and Cu₂X₂LP₂ (L = bridging ligand, P = ancillary ligand) goes along with endless variation options for tunability. In this work, the influence of substituents and modifications on the phosphine moiety of the NP-bridging ligand was investigated. In previous studies, the location of the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) of the copper complexes of the PyrPhos family was found to be located on the NP-bridging ligand and enabled color tuning in the whole visible spectrum. A multitude of dinuclear Cu(I) complexes based on the triple methylated 2-(bis(4-methylphenyl)phosphino)-4-methylpyridine (Cu-1b-H, Cu-1b-MeO, and Cu-1b-F) up to complexes bearing 2-(bis(4-fluorophenyl)phosphino)pyridine (Cu-6a-H) with electron-withdrawing fluorine atoms over many other variations on the NP-bridging ligands were synthesized. Almost all copper complexes were confirmed via single crystal X-ray diffraction analysis. Besides theoretical TDDFT-studies of the electronic properties and photophysical measurements, the majority of the phosphino-modified Cu(I) complexes was tested in solution-processed organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) with different heterostructure variations. The best results of the OLED devices were obtained with copper emitter Cu-1b-H in a stack architecture of ITO/PEDOT-PSS (50 nm)/poly-TPD (15 nm)/20 wt % Cu(I) emitter:CBP:TcTA(7:3) (45 nm)/TPBi (30 nm)/LiF(1 nm)/Al (>100 nm) with a high brightness of 5900 Cd/m² and a good current efficiency of 3.79 Cd/A.

New Photosensitizers Based on Heteroleptic CuI Complexes and CO2 Photocatalytic Reduction with [NiII (cyclam)]Cl2

Earth-abundant metal complexes have been attracting increasing attention in the field of photo(redox)catalysis. In this work, the synthesis and full characterisation of four new heteroleptic CuI complexes are reported, which can work as photosensitizers. The complexes bear a bulky diphosphine (DPEPhos=bis[(2-diphenylphosphino)phenyl] ether) and a diimine chelating ligand based on 1-benzyl-4-(quinol-2'yl)-1,2,3-triazole. Their absorption has a relative maximum in the visible-light region, up to 450 nm. Thus, their use in photocatalytic systems for the reduction of CO2 with blue light in combination with the known catalyst [NiII (cyclam)]Cl2 was tested. This system produced CO as the main product through visible light (λ=420 nm) with a TON up to 8 after 4 hours. This value is in line with other photocatalytic systems using the same catalyst. Nevertheless, this system is entirely noble-metal free.