Electrochemiluminescent Functionalizable Cyclometalated Thiophene-Based Iridium(III) Complexes

Impact of Anchoring Groups on the Photocatalytic Performance of Iridium(III) Complexes and Their Toxicological Analysis

Three different iridium(III) complexes, labelled as Ir1-Ir3, each bearing a unique anchoring moiety (diethyl [2,2'-bipyridine]-4,4'-dicarboxylate, tetraethyl [2,2'-bipyridine]-4,4'-diylbis(phosphonate), or [2,2'-biquinoline]-4,4'-dicarboxylic acid), were synthesized to serve as photosensitizers. Their electrochemical and photophysical characteristics were systematically investigated. ERP measurements were employed to elucidate the impact of the anchoring groups on the photocatalytic hydrogen generation performance of the complexes. The novel iridium(III) complexes were integrated with platinized TiO2 (Pt-TiO2) nanoparticles and tested for their ability to catalyze hydrogen production under visible light. A H2 turnover number (TON) of up to 3670 was obtained upon irradiation for 120 h. The complexes with tetraethyl [2,2'-bipyridine]-4,4'-diylbis(phosphonate) anchoring groups were found to outperform those bearing other moieties, which may be one of the important steps in the development of high-efficiency iridium(III) photosensitizers for hydrogen generation by water splitting. Additionally, toxicological analyses found no significant difference in the toxicity to luminescent bacteria of any of the present iridium(III) complexes compared with that of TiO2, which implies that the complexes investigated in this study do not pose a high risk to the aquatic environment compared to TiO2.

2-(Thienyl)quinoxaline derivatives and their application in Ir(III) complexes yielding tuneable deep red emitters

The synthesis and characterisation of eleven different 2-(thienyl)quinoxaline species that incorporate different points of functionality, including at the thiophene or quinoxaline rings, are described. These species display variable fluorescence properties in the visible region (λem = 401-491 nm) depending upon the molecular structures and extent of conjugation. The series of 2-(thienyl)quinoxaline species were then investigated as cyclometalating agents for Ir(III) to yield [Ir(C^N)2(bipy)]PF6 (where C^N = the cyclometalated ligand; bipy = 2,2'-bipyridine). Eight complexes were successfully isolated and fully characterised by an array of spectroscopic and analytical techniques. Two Ir(III) examples were structurally characterised in the solid state using single crystal X-ray diffraction; both structures confirmed the proposed formulations and coordination spheres in each case showing that the thiophene coordinates via a Ir-C bond. The photophysical properties of the complexes revealed that each complex is luminescent under ambient conditions with a range of emission wavelengths observed (665-751 nm) indicating that electronic tuning can be achieved via both the thienyl and quinoxaline moieties.

Synthesis, Structure, and Photophysical Properties of Platinum Compounds with Thiophene-Derived Cyclohexyl Diimine Ligands

Platinum(II) and platinum(IV) compounds were prepared by the stereoselective and regioselective reactions of thiophene-derived cyclohexyl diimine C^N^N-ligands with [Pt2Me4(μ-SMe2)2]. Newly synthesized ligands were characterized by NMR spectroscopy and elemental analysis, and Pt(II)/Pt(IV) compounds were characterized by NMR spectroscopy, elemental analysis, high-resolution mass spectrometry, and single-crystal X-ray diffraction. UV-vis absorbance and photoluminescence measurements were performed on newly synthesized complexes, as well as structurally related Pt(II)/Pt(IV) compounds with benzene-derived cyclohexyl diimine ligands, in dichloromethane solution, as solids, and as 5% by weight PMMA-doped films. DFT and TD-DFT calculations were performed, and the results were compared with the observed spectroscopic properties of the newly synthesized complexes. X-ray total scattering measurements and real space pair distribution function analysis were performed on the synthesized complexes to examine the local- and intermediate-range atomic structures of the emissive solid states.

Synthesis and comparison study of electrochemiluminescence from mononuclear and corresponding heterodinuclear Ir-Ru complexes via an amide bond as a bridge

A mononuclear iridium-based complex with a primary amine group (named Ir-NH₂), a mononuclear ruthenium-based complex with a butanoic acid group (named Ru-COOH) and the corresponding heterodinuclear complex containing an iridium and ruthenium center via an amide bond bridge (named Ir-Ru) were designed and successfully synthesized in this study. The photophysical and electrochemical properties and ECL performances of these three metal complexes under various experimental conditions were well characterized. For the first time, the insights from this comprehensive comparison study indicate that the two metal-based subunits with comparable luminescent properties are significant in the design of bimetallic-based multicolor luminophores at the molecular level, which helps us to further understand the emission performances of bimetallic complexes and to rationally design more efficient corresponding organometallic luminophores with multicolor emission for wide applications in the future.

Development of Strong Visible-Light-Absorbing Cyclometalated Iridium(III) Complexes for Robust and Efficient Light-Driven Hydrogen Production

Weak light absorption of common Ir(III) complexes (e. g., using phenylpyridine as the ligand) has hindered their applications in photocatalytic hydrogen generation from water as an efficient photosensitizer. To address this issue, a series of cyclometalated Ir(III) complexes (Ir1-Ir5), featuring different electron-donating substituents to enhance the absorptivity, have been synthesized and studied as photosensitizers (PSs) for light-driven hydrogen production from water. Ir6-Ir7 were prepared as fundamental systems for comparisons. Electron donors, including 9-phenylcarbazole, triphenylamine, 4,4'-dimethoxytriphenylamine, 4,4'-di(N-hexylcarbazole)triphenylamine moieties were introduced on 6-(thiophen-2-yl)phenanthridine-based cyclometalating (C^N) ligands to explore the donor effect on the hydrogen evolution performance of these cationic Ir(III) complexes. Remarkably, Ir4 with 4,4'-dimethoxytriphenylamine achieved the highest turn-over number (TON) of 12 300 and initial turnover frequency (TOF_i ) of 394 h^-1 , with initial activity (activity_i ) of 547 000 μmol g^-1  h^-1 and initial apparent quantum yield (AQY_i ) of 9.59 %, under the illumination of blue light-emitting diodes (LEDs) for 105 hours, which demonstrated a stable three-component photocatalytic system with high efficiency. The TON (based on n(H₂ )/n(PSr)) in this study is the highest value reported to date among the similar photocatalytic systems using Ir(III) complexes with Pt nanoparticles as catalyst. The great potential of using triphenylamine-based Ir(III) PSs in boosting photocatalytic performance has also been shown.

The synthesis of cyclometalated platinum(II) complexes with benzoaryl-pyridines as C^N ligands for investigating their photophysical, electrochemical and electroluminescent properties

A series of (C^N)Pt(acac)-type complexes has been successfully synthesized with a benzo[b]furan, benzo[b]thiophene, benzo[b]selenophene, or benzo[b]tellurophene group in the benzoaryl-pyridine ligand. Using X-ray crystallography, the chemical structures of the complexes with benzo[b]selenophene and benzo[b]tellurophene groups have been clearly revealed. The photophysical, electrochemical, and electroluminescent (EL) behaviors of these (C^N)Pt(acac)-type complexes have been fully characterized. Furthermore, both time-dependent functional theory (TD-DFT) and natural transition orbital (NTO) theoretical results have been obtained to gain insight into the absorption and emission features. It has been shown that both the absorption bands with the lowest energy and the phosphorescence emission behaviors are dominated by the benzoaryl-pyridine cyclometalating ligand. Importantly, the effects of the group VIA atoms on the properties of these (C^N)Pt(acac)-type complexes have been revealed. Owing to the rareness of (C^N)Pt(acac)-type complexes with benzo[b]selenophene and benzo[b]tellurophene groups, their EL abilities have been characterized using solution-processed organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). The optimized red OLEDs with the complex bearing a benzo[b]selenophene unit show a maximum external quantum efficiency (ηext) of 6.3%, current efficiency (ηL) of 10.5 cd A-1, and power efficiency (ηP) of 9.1 lm W-1, while the EL device with the complex bearing a benzo[b]tellurophene unit can give deep-red emission at ca. 636 nm with ηext of 6.3%, ηL of 6.5 cd A-1, and ηP of 5.8 lm W-1. This research not only provides novel (C^N)Pt(acac)-type complexes, but also furnishes critical information regarding the photophysical and EL behavior of these new complexes.

Asymmetric Heteroleptic Ir(III) Phosphorescent Complexes with Aromatic Selenide and Selenophene Groups: Synthesis and Photophysical, Electrochemical, and Electrophosphorescent Behaviors

With the aim of evaluating the potential of selenium-containing groups in developing electroluminescent (EL) materials, a series of asymmetric heteroleptic Ir(III) phosphorescent complexes (Ir-Se0F, Ir-Se1F, Ir-Se2F, and Ir-Se3F) have been synthesized by using 2-selenophenylpyridine and one ppy-type (ppy = 2-phenylpyridine) ligand with a fluorinated selenide group. To the best of our knowledge, these complexes represent unprecedented examples of asymmetric heteroleptic Ir(III) phosphorescent emitters bearing selenium-containing groups. Natural transition orbital (NTO) analysis based on optimized geometries of the first triplet state (T₁) have shown that the phosphorescent emissions of these Ir(III) complexes dominantly show ³π-π* features of the 2-selenophenylpyridine ligand with slight metal to ligand charge transfer (MLCT) contribution. In comparison with their symmetric parent complex Ir-Se with two 2-selenophenylpyridine ligands, these asymmetric heteroleptic Ir(III) phosphorescent complexes can show much higher phosphorescent quantum yields (Φ_P) of ca. 0.90. Both the hole- and electron-trapping ability of these Ir(III) phosphorescent complexes can be enhanced by selenophene and fluorinated selenide groups to improve their EL efficiencies. The EL abilities of these asymmetric heteroleptic Ir(III) phosphorescent emitters fall in the order Ir-Se3F > Ir-Se2F > Ir-Se1F > Ir-Se0F. The highest EL efficiencies have been achieved by Ir-Se3F in the solution-processed OLEDs with external quantum efficiency (η_ext), current efficiency (η_L), and power efficiency (η_P) of 19.9%, 65.6 cd A^-1, and 57.3 lm W^-1, respectively. These encouraging EL results clearly indicate the great potential of selenium-containing groups in developing high-performance Ir(III) phosphorescent emitters.

Highly efficient electrochemiluminescence labels comprising iridium(iii) complexes

Highly efficient iridium ECL labels exhibiting various emission colors have been developed. Importantly, BSA labeled with the novel iridium labels displays much more intense ECL than the same amount labeled by a traditional ruthenium label in ProCell buffer solution.

Twisted configuration pyrene derivative: exhibiting pure blue monomer photoluminescence and electrogenerated chemiluminescence emissions in non-aqueous media

Methyl benzoate-pyrene, a pyrene derivative with a twisted configuration, exhibited monomer photoluminescence and electrogenerated chemiluminescence emissions.

Cyclometalated iridium(III) chelates-a new exceptional class of the electrochemiluminescent luminophores

Recent development of the phosphorescent cyclometalated iridium(III) chelates has enabled, due to their advantageous electrochemical and photo-physical properties, important breakthroughs in many photonic applications. This particular class of 5d(6) ion complexes has attracted increasing interest because of their potential application in electroluminescence devices with a nearly 100 % internal quantum efficiency for the conversion of electric energy to photons. Similar to electroluminescence, the cyclometalated iridium(III) chelates have been successfully applied in the electricity-to-light conversion by means of the electrochemiluminescence (ECL) processes. The already reported ECL systems utilizing the title compounds exhibit extremely large ECL efficiencies that allow one to envisage many potential application for them, especially in further development of ECL-based analytical techniques. This review, based on recently published papers, focuses on the ECL properties of this very exciting class of organometallic luminophores. The reported work, describing results from fundamental as well as application-oriented investigations, will be surveyed and briefly discussed. Graphical abstract Depending on the chemical nature of the cyclometalated irdium(III) chelate different colours of the emitted light can be produced during electrochemical excitation.

Near-infrared triggered generation of reactive oxygen species from upconverting nanoparticles decorated with an organoiridium complex

We developed an upconverting nanoparticle capable of (up)converting near-infrared excitation light to UV to sensitize an organoiridium complex for the production of reactive oxygen species.

Emissive Ir(III) complexes bearing thienylamido groups on a 1,10-phenanthroline scaffold

The synthesis, structures and photophysical properties of a series of bis-cyclometallated Ir(iii) complexes bearing phenylpyrazole (ppz) cyclometallating ligands and phenanthroline-based ancillary ligands containing thienyl- and bithienylamido groups are reported. All complexes are emissive in solution, while in PMMA films strong emission is observed from the thienylamido substituted complex with no emission from the bithienylamido complex. The bithienylamido substituted complex has an excited state lifetime which is significantly longer than the emission lifetime, attributed to the population of non-equilibrated (3)MLCT and (3)LC states in this complex. This represents a rare example of this unusual excited state behaviour. DFT calculations show that the emitting (3)MLCT state and the dark (3)LC state on bithiophene are close in energy and that a large change in the triplet state geometry occurs upon excitation that effectively lowers the energy of the (3)MLCT state below that of the dark (3)LC state. The low quantum yield of the bithienylamido complex is attributed to a structural rearrangement upon relaxation back to the ground state, opening a non-radiative decay pathway.

Sensitive Detection of ssDNA Using an LRET-Based Upconverting Nanohybrid Material

Water-dispersible, optical hybrid nanoparticles are preferred materials for DNA biosensing due to their biocompatibility. Upconverting nanoparticles are highly desirable optical probes in sensors and bioimaging owing to their sharp emission intensity in the visible region. We herein report a highly sensitive ss-DNA detection based on an energy transfer system that uses a nanohybrid material synthesized by doping NaYF4:Tm(3+)/Yb(3+) upconverting nanoparticles (UCNPs) on silica coated polystyrene-co-acrylic acid (PSA) nanoparticles (PSA/SiO2) as the donor, and gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) decorated with Ir(III) complex as the acceptor. UCNPs tagged on PSA/SiO2 and the cyclometalated Ir(III)/AuNP conjugates were then linked through the ss-DNA sequence. Sequential addition of the target DNA to the probe molecular beacon complex resulted in the separation of the optical nanohybrid material and the quencher, leading to a measurable increase in the blue fluorescence emission intensity. Our results have shown a linear relationship between the fluorescence intensity and target DNA concentration down to the picomolar.

Photophysical behaviour of cyclometalated iridium(III) complexes with phosphino(terthiophene) ligands

Six new Ir(III) complexes containing the 3'-phosphino-2,2':5',2''-terthiophene (PT3) ligand in three different coordination modes are reported. The electronic properties of the complexes are characterized by cyclic voltammetry, absorption, emission and time-resolved transient absorption spectroscopies and DFT/TDDFT calculations. The electrochemical and photophysical behaviour of the complexes was found to be dominated by the PT3 ligand. For the complexes in which the PT3 ligand is coordinated in a bidentate P,S or P,C mode, the lowest energy absorption band is attributed to π-π* PT3 localized transitions consistent with observations from DFT calculations. Emission quantum yields are low in all cases (<0.07) and emission lifetimes are short (<50 ns). Intersystem crossing leads to a long-lived triplet state ((3)L) also localized on the PT3 group. In the complex where the PT3 ligand is coordinated only via the phosphine, TDDFT calculations suggest that there is some MLCT (and Cl-PT3 CT) character in the lowest energy transition.

Luminescent Iridium(III)-Containing Block Copolymers: Self-Assembly into Biotin-Labeled Micelles for Biodetection Assays

Luminescent polymers containing Ir(ppy)₂(bpy) PF₆ complexes, biocompatible poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) chains, and biotin moieties were synthesized via ring-opening metathesis polymerization (ROMP). Their self-assembly in water into micelles resulted in an increased quantum yield compared to open polymer chains in acetonitrile, which is likely due to core rigidity and desolvation. Streptavidin coated magnetic beads were employed to analyze the binding ability of these micelles. The positioning of the molecular recognition moiety biotin within the polymer chain had a very significant effect on the availability of biotin on the micelle surface and the ability of the micelles to bind to streptavidin. Simply attaching biotin to the end of the ROMP polymer yielded micelles in which the biotin units were shielded by the PEG chains, whereas the synthesis of a new ROMP monomer containing biotin at the end of the PEG chains resulted in improved surface availability of the biotin group. Preliminary experiments in which streptavidin was microcontact-printed onto functionalized glass coverslips also indicated specific binding between the micelles and streptavidin and further demonstrated the potential of these micelle systems to function as luminescent probes in solid-phase biodetection assays.