Charge Transfer through Isomeric Unsaturated Hydrocarbons. Redox Switchable Optical Properties and Electronic Structure of Substituted Indenes with a Pendant Ferrocenyl

Redox-controlled syndio-specific polymerization of styrene catalyzed by ferrocenyl functionalized half-sandwich scandium complexes

Redox-controlled polymerization is one of the new and efficient strategies to precisely construct the microstructures of polymeric materials, and thus has received increasing attention in the chemical community. Salt metathesis of ScCl₃ with 1 equiv. of Fc(1-C₉H₆)Li (where Fc = ferrocenyl group), followed by the addition of 2 equiv. of LiCH₂C₆H₄NMe₂-o in THF at room temperature gave the ferrocenyl functionalized half-sandwich scandium bis(o-dimethylaminobenzyl) complex [Fc(1-C₉H₆)]Sc(CH₂C₆H₄NMe₂-o)₂ (1) in 89% isolated yield. This complex was characterized by elemental analysis, FT-IR spectroscopy, NMR spectroscopy and single-crystal X-ray diffraction. Treatment of 1 with 1 equiv. of [Ph₃C][B(C₆F₅)₄] in THF generated the THF-coordinated cationic half-sandwich scandium mono(o-dimethylaminobenzyl) complex {[Fc(1-C₉H₆)]Sc(CH₂C₆H₄NMe₂-o)}{[B(C₆F₅)₄]} (2-THF₂). Switching in situ between the oxidized and reduced forms of active THF-free species (originally generated from 1/[Ph₃C][B(C₆F₅)₄] in situ) resulted in the redox-controlled syndio-specific polymerization of styrene.

Homometallic Cubane Clusters: Participation of Three-Coordinated Hydrogen in 60-Valence Electron Cubane Core

This work describes the synthesis, structural characterizations, and electronic structures of a series of novel homometallic cubane clusters [(Cp*Ru)2{Ru(CO)2}2BH(μ3-E)(μ-H)B(μ-H)3M], (2, M = Cp*Ru, E = CO; 3, M = Ru(Cp*Ru)2(μ-CO)3(μ-H)BH), E = BH), [(Cp*Ru)3(μ3-CO)(BH)3(μ3-H)3], 4, and [(Cp*Ru)2(μ3-CO){Ru(CO)3}2(BH)2(μ-H)B], 5 (Cp* = η(5)-C5Me5). These cubane clusters have been isolated from a thermally driven reaction of diruthenium analogue of pentaborane(9) [(Cp*RuH)2B3H7], 1, and [Ru3(CO)12]. Structural and spectroscopic studies revealed the existence of triply bridged hydrogen (μ3-H) atoms that participate as a vertex in the cubane core formation for compounds 2, 3, and 4. In addition, the crystal structure of these clusters clearly confirms the presence of an electron precise borane ligand (borylene fragment) which is triply bridged to the trimetallic units. Bonding of these novel complexes has been studied computationally by DFT methods, and the studies demonstrate that the cubane clusters 2 and 3 possess 60 cluster valence electrons (cves) with six metal-metal bonds. All the new compounds have been characterized in solution by mass spectrometry; IR; and (1)H, (11)B, and (13)C NMR studies, and the structural types were unequivocally established by crystallographic analysis of compounds 2-5.

Large excited state two photon absorptions in the near infrared region of surprisingly stable radical cations of (ferrocenyl)indenes

Multiphoton absorptions are important non-linear optical processes which allow us to explore excited states with low energy photons giving rise to new possibilities for photoinduced processes. Among these processes, multiphoton absorptions from excited states are particularly interesting because of the large susceptibilities characteristic of excited states. Here we explore the nonlinear transmission measurements recorded with 9 ns laser pulses at 1064 nm of the radical cations of (2-ferrocenyl)indene and of (2-ferrocenyl)-hexamethylindene, two interesting very stable molecules. The non-linear transmission data can be interpreted with a multiphoton sequence of three photon absorptions, the first being a one photon absorption related to the intramolecular charge transfer and the second a two photon absorption from the excited state created with the first process. The two photon absorption cross section is found to be several orders of magnitude larger than those usually found for two photon absorbing systems excited from the ground state.

Photoinduced charge transfer in short-distance ferrocenylsubphthalocyanine dyads

Two new ferrocenylsubphthalocyanine dyads with ferrocenylmethoxide (2) and ferrocenecarboxylate (3) substituents directly attached to the subphthalocyanine ligand via the axial position have been prepared and characterized using NMR, UV-vis, and magnetic circular dichroism (MCD) spectroscopies as well as X-ray crystallography. The redox properties of the ferrocenyl-containing dyads 2 and 3 were investigated using the cyclic voltammetry (CV) approach and compared to those of the parent subphthalocyanine 1. CV data reveal that the first reversible oxidation is ferrocene-centered, while the second oxidation and the first reduction are localized on the subphthalocyanine ligand. The electronic structures and nature of the optical bands observed in the UV-vis and MCD spectra of all target compounds were investigated by a density functional theory polarized continuum model (DFT-PCM) and time-dependent (TD)DFT-PCM approaches. It has been found that in both dyads the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) to HOMO-2 are ferrocene-centered molecular orbitals, while HOMO-3 as well as lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) and LUMO+1 are localized on the subphthalocyanine ligand. TDDFT-PCM data on complexes 1-3 are consistent with the experimental observations, which indicate the dominance of π-π* transitions in the UV-vis spectra of 1-3. The excited-state dynamics of the dyads 2 and 3 were investigated using time-correlated single photon counting, which indicates that fluorescence quenching is more efficient in dyad 3 compared to dyad 2. These fluorescence lifetime measurements were interpreted on the basis of DFT-PCM calculations.