New Investigations of Geometric, Electronic, and Spectroscopic Properties of Tetrapyrrolic Macrocycles by a TD−DFT Approach. Carbon, Nitrogen, and Chalcogen (O, S, Se) Peripheral Substitution Effects on Ni(II) Porphyrazinato Complexes

Characterization of "Free Base" and Metal Complex Thioalkyl Porphyrazines by Magnetic Circular Dichroism and TDDFT Calculations

UV–vis absorption and magnetic circular dichroism (MCD) spectra of octakis thioethyl “free base” porphyrazine H₂OESPz and its metal complexes MOESPz (M = Mg, Zn, Ni, Pd, Cu), as well as of [MnOESPz(SH)] were recorded. In the last case, MCD proved to have quite good sensitivity to the coordination of this complex with 1-methylimidazole (1-mim) in benzene. Time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT) calculations were carried out for the considered porphyrazine complexes and showed good performance on comparing with MCD and UV–vis experimental spectra, even in the open-shell Cu and Mn cases. Calculations accounted for the red shift observed in the thioalkyl compounds and allowed us to reveal the role of sulfur atoms in spectroscopically relevant molecular orbitals and to highlight the importance of the conformations of the thioethyl external groups. Calculated MCD spectra of [MnOESPz(SH)] confirm the Mn(III) → Mn(II) redox process, which leads to the [Mn(OESPz)(1-mim)₂] species, and the relevance of the spin state for MCD is revealed.

Nickel-macrocycle interaction in nickel(II) porphyrins and porphyrazines bearing alkylthio β-substituents: A combined DFT and XPS study

An electronic structure analysis of two nickel(II) tetrapyrrole complexes bearing β-alkylthio substituents, NiOMTP and NiOETPz, has been carried out through a combination of high-resolution XPS experiments and DFT calculations. The Ni 2p XPS spectra show a 0.5 eV shift to higher energy of the Ni 2p[Formula: see text] and Ni 2p[Formula: see text] binding energies on going from the porphyrin to the porphyrazine complex. This shift, which is well-reproduced by relativistic spin-orbit ZORA calculations, is indicative of a depletion of electron density on the central metal. Such a depletion of electron density is related to the macrocycle-induced changes in the metal-ligand interactions. In the porphyrazine complex both the ligand to metal [Formula: see text] donation and the metal to ligand [Formula: see text]-back donation increase. The latter increases slightly more than the former, however, leading to a decrease of electron density on the central metal.

Non-symmetrical aryl- and arylethynyl-substituted thioalkyl-porphyrazines for optoelectronic materials: synthesis, properties, and computational studies

A series of novel non-symmetrically substituted mono β-aryl and β-arylethynyl (alkylsulfanyl)porphyrazines and the corresponding Ni(ii) complexes have been prepared by the Suzuki-Miyaura and Sonogashira cross-coupling reactions with the aim to investigate substituent effects on their electronic and aggregation properties. Spectroscopic, electrochemical and computational investigations show that in both aryl and arylethynyl compounds efficient electron transfer between the aryl and macrocycle moieties occurs. The highest perturbation of the porphyrazine π-electron core is provided by strong electron-donating (NMe2) and electron withdrawing (NO2) aryl substituents, which increase and decrease the macrocycle electron density, respectively. Moreover, while in most of the compounds the LUMOs and HOMOs are mainly localized on the porphyrazine ring, in the amino-substituted derivatives the HOMO is localized on the peripheral aryl moieties and the LUMO is localized on the macrocycle. Charge-transfer electronic excitations give rise to absorptions in UV-Vis spectra of both amino- and nitro-substituted compounds. In the former such excitations occur from aryl-localized to macrocycle-localized orbitals, while backward excitations occur in the latter. Therefore, the porphyrazine ring shows an ambivalent behavior, acting as an electron acceptor in the case of the NMe2-substituted compounds and as an electron donor in the NO2-substituted derivative. In these derivatives, even macrocycle mono-substitution provides unconventional "push-pull" systems suitable for NLO. Columnar discotic mesophases are also shown by thio-octyl arylethynyl derivatives, allowing us to envisage the possibility to achieve compounds both suitable for optoelectronic applications and endowed with self-aggregation properties.