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.

Metal-Controlled Assembly and Selectivity of a Urea-Based Anion Receptor

1-(3-[1,10]phenanthrolin-2-yl-phenyl)-3-(4-trifluoromethyl-phenyl)-urea (1) forms a solution-stable 1:2 complex with copper(I), [CuI(1)2]+, which behaves as an anion receptor in aprotic media. The [CuI(1)2]+ receptor may adopt a geometrical arrangement in which the two facing urea subunits give tetrafurcate H-bond interaction with a spherical anion (halides and H2PO4-). In the presence of the Y-shaped acetate, the [CuI(1)2]+ receptor rearranges to interact with two CH3COO- ions, according to two stepwise equilibria. Thus, in the presence of substoichiometric amounts of the anions, [CuI(1)2]+ discriminates H2PO4- over CH3COO-, inverting the basicity trend.

Chiral spiro Cu(i) complexes. Supramolecular stereocontrol and isomerisation dynamics by the use of TRISPHAT anions

Association of enantiopure TRISPHAT anion (1) with chiral spiro [Cu(LL')2] complexes (LL' = 2-R-phen, 2, 6-R-bpy, 3, and 2-iminopyridine, 4) leads to an efficient NMR enantiodifferentiation. Variable temperature 1H NMR spectroscopy has been used to determine the isomerisation kinetics of these pseudo-tetrahedral complexes and to evaluate their configurational stability; the latter depending on the structure of the diimine ligands. In the case of the 2-anthracenyl-phen derivative, a decent level of supramolecular stereocontrol was noted (d.e. up to 45%); the configuration of the complex being determined by electronic circular dichroism (ECD).

Synthesis and structural characterization of a novel mixed-valent Cu(II)Cu(I)Cu(II) triangular metallomacrocycle using an imine-based rigid ligand

A novel neutral mixed-valent Cu(I)Cu(II)(2) triangular metallomacrocycle [Cu(3)L(2)(HL)].3CH(3)OH.2H(2)O (1) was assembled by reaction of the tetradentate ligand bis(N-salicylidene-4,4'-diphenylamine), H(2)L, with a copper(II) salt. ESI-MS show peaks only corresponding to the triangular structural species, indicating the high stability of the trimer structure in solution. Magnetic study confirms that there are two Cu(II) ions and one Cu(I) ion in a discrete triangular molecule. The crystal structure of 1 reveals that the triangle is formed by three deprotonated ligands and three copper ions with a Cu-Cu separation of ca. 11.8 A. Each copper atom is coordinated by two oxygen atoms and two nitrogen atoms from two different bis-bidentate ligands in a heavily distorted tetrahedral geometry, while each ligand is bound to two metal ions in a bis-bidentate coordination mode and links the metal centers overlapping in an unprogressive manner. Strong intramolecular pi.pi interactions between the ligands are found to stabilize the constraint conformation of the triangle. Electrochemical study reveals that the mixed-valent Cu(I)Cu(II)(2) complex is the most stable state in solution condition, and the electrochemical communication between the copper ions might be explained on the basis of the through-bond interaction. UV-vis-NIR spectral measurement demonstrates the Robin-Day class II behavior of the mixed-valence compound with a weak copper-copper interaction.