Hong-Yan Zhuo

High‐Nuclear Organometallic Copper(I)–Alkynide Clusters: Thermochromic Near‐Infrared Luminescence and Solution Stability

Cu(CF3 COO)2 reacts with tert-butylacetylene (tBuC≡CH) in methanol in the presence of metallic copper powder to give two air-stable clusters, [CuI15 (tBuC≡C)10 (CF3 COO)5 ]⋅tBuC≡CH (1) and [CuI16 (tBuC≡C)12 (CF3 COO)4 (CH3 OH)2 ] (2). The assembly process involves in situ comproportionation reaction between Cu2+ and Cu0 and the formation of two different clusters is controlled by reactants concentration. The clusters consist of Cu15 and Cu16 cores co-stabilized by strong by σ- and π-bonded tert-butylethynide and CF3 COO- (together with methanol molecule in 2). Their stabilities in solution were confirmed using electrospray ionization mass spectrometry in which the cluster core remains intact for 1 in chloroform and acetone, and for 2 in acetonitrile. Strong thermochromic luminescence in the near infrared (NIR) region was observed in the solid-state. Of particular interest, the emission maximum of 1 is red-shifted from 710 nm at 298 K to 793 nm at 93 K, along with a 17-fold fluorescence enhancement. In contrast, 2 exhibits red shift from 298 to 123 K followed by blue shift from 123 to 93 K. The emission wavelength was correlated with the structural parameters using variable-temperature X-ray single-crystal analyses. The rich cuprophilic interaction plays a significant role in the formation of 3 LMCT (tBuC≡C→Cux ) excited state mixed with cluster-centered (3 CC) characters, which can be considerably influenced by temperature, leading to thermochromic luminescence. The present work provides 1) a new synthetic protocol for the high-nuclear CuI -alkynyl clusters; 2) a comprehensive insight into the mechanism of thermochromic luminescence; 3) unusual emissive materials with the characters of NIR and thermochromic luminescence simultaneously.

A Tetradecanuclear Organometallic Copper(I)-Alkynide Cluster: Synthesis, Crystal Structure, and Luminescent Property

A novel high-nuclearity copper(I) cluster formulated as [Cu14(tBuC≡C)10(CH3COO)4] (1) was synthesized through comproportionation reaction under stirring condition. The tetradecanuclear copper(I) cluster was identified by single-crystal X-ray diffraction and characterized using UV–Vis, IR, thermogravimetric analysis, powder X-ray diffraction and elemental analyses. Interestingly, powder sample of 1 exhibits remarkable yellow luminescence at room temperature.