Sara Muzzioli

Photophysical and Photochemical Trends in Tricarbonyl Rhenium(I) N-Heterocyclic Carbene Complexes

A family of tricarbonyl Re(I) complexes of the formulation fac-[Re(CO)3(NHC)L] has been synthesized and characterized, both spectroscopically and structurally. The NHC ligand represents a bidentate N-heterocyclic carbene species where the central imidazole ring is substituted at the N3 atom by a butyl, a phenyl, or a mesityl group and substituted at the N1 atom by a pyridyl, a pyrimidyl, or a quinoxyl group. On the other hand, the ancillary L ligand alternates between chloro and bromo. For the majority of the complexes, the photophysical properties suggest emission from the lowest triplet metal-to-ligand charge transfer states, which are found partially mixed with triplet ligand-to-ligand charge transfer character. The nature and relative energy of the emitting states appear to be mainly influenced by the identity of the substituent on the N3 atom of the imidazole ring; thus, the pyridyl complexes have blue-shifted emission in comparison to the more electron deficient pyrimidyl complexes. The quinoxyl complexes show an unexpected blue-shifted emission, possibly occurring from ligand-centered excited states. No significant variations were found upon changing the substituent on the imidazole N3 atom and/or the ancillary ligand. The photochemical properties of the complexes have also been investigated, with only the complexes bound to the pyridyl-substituted NHC ligands showing photoinduced CO dissociation upon excitation at 370 nm, as demonstrated by the change in the IR and NMR spectra as well as a red shift in the emission profile after photolysis. Temperature-dependent photochemical experiments show that CO dissociation occurs at temperatures as low as 233 K, suggesting that the Re-C bond cleaves from excited states of metal-to-ligand charge transfer nature rather than thermally activated ligand field excited states. A photochemical mechanism that takes into account the reactivity of the complexes bound to the pyridyl-NHC ligand as well as the stability of those bound to the pyrimidyl- and quinoxyl-NHC ligands is proposed.

Modulation of the organelle specificity in Re(I) tetrazolato complexes leads to labeling of lipid droplets

The biological behaviour in terms of cellular incubation and organelle specificity for two complexes of the type fac-[Re(CO)3(phen)L], where phen is 1,10-phenanthroline and L is either 3-pyridyltetrazolate or 4-cyanophenyltetrazolate, are herein investigated. The emission signal detected from the live insect Drosophila and human cell lines, generated by exploiting two-photon excitation at 830 nm to reduce cellular damage and autofluorescence, suggests photophysical properties that are analogous to those measured from dilute solutions, meaning that the complexes remain intact within the cellular environment. Moreover, the rhenium complex linked to 4-cyanophenyltetrazolate shows high specificity for the lipid droplets, whereas the complex bound to 3-pyridyltetrazolate tends to localise within the lysosomes. This differential localisation implies that in these complexes, organelle specificity can be achieved and manipulated by simple functional group transformations thus avoiding more complex bioconjugation strategies. More importantly, these results highlight the first example of phosphorescent labeling of the lipid droplets, whose important cellular functions have been recently highlighted along with the fact that their role in the metabolism of healthy and diseased cells has not been fully elucidated.

Tuning the colour and efficiency in OLEDs by using amorphous or polycrystalline emitting layers

We investigated the nature of the emissive states in newly synthesized cyclometallated Pt complexes containing a chelating 2-pyridyl tetrazolate (2-PTZ) ligand, namely Pt(ppy)(2-PTZ), and Pt(F2ppy)(2-PTZ) as a solid-state phosphor, by examining their structural properties versus their phosphorescence (PH) and electroluminescence (EL) characteristics. It is found that the observed tuning of both PH and EL spectra, their red shift and shortening decay with increasing concentration in the complex blends are due to the competition between three emissive states: monomer, excimer and dimer. The pure dimer emission appeared in neat films, reaching a high PH quantum yield of about 75% and external EL efficiency approaching 10% for the OLED based on the neat Pt(F2ppy)(2-PTZ) complex film as an emitting layer (EML). X-ray diffraction proved the high structural order of the latter thin film. These findings have a direct impact on the design of a new OLED generation based on single phosphor multi-emission controlled by the structural order degree of the EML.

Enhanced deep-blue emission from Pt(II) complexes bound to 2-pyridyltetrazolate and an ortho-xylene-linked bis(NHC)cyclophane

The coordination of 2-pyridyltetrazolate and ortho-xylene-linked bis(NHC)cyclophane to Pt(II) yielded a novel complex characterised by enhanced pure deep-blue emission, whose intensity can be modulated via methylation of the tetrazole ring.

One-step assembly of Re(I) tricarbonyl 2-pyridyltetrazolato metallacalix[3]arene with aqua emission and reversible three-electron oxidation

The reaction of 2-pyridyltetrazolate with [Re(CO)5X] (X = Cl, Br) yielded the formation of an unexpected cyclic metallacalix[3]arene, as revealed by X-ray structural studies, characterised by aqua emission and reversible three-electron oxidation.

High efficiency electroluminescence devices using a series of Ir"III…-tetrazolate phosphors: Mechanisms for the drive current evolution of quantum yield

We demonstrate high-brightness and high-efficiency blue-green to yellow-green electrophosphorescent organic light-emitting diodes employing a series of organic Ir complexes [Ir-(C∧N)2(N∧N)]. Three different complexes have been synthesized showing high photoluminescence solid blend efficiencies up to 44%. A low current density increase of the electroluminescence (EL) external quantum efficiency (φEL(ext)) is observed and a maximum of φEL(ext)=10.6%±0.8% photon/e and power efficiency η=27±2 lm/W are achieved at a current density of j=0.01 mA/cm2. We examine various electronic processes that underlie a nonmonotonous current density dependence of the EL quantum efficiency of electrophosphorescent light-emitting diodes. The shape of φEL(ext) versus j is shown to reflect a trade off between electron-hole encounter and charge carrier transit times, electric field effect on electron-hole pair dissociation time, and current driven triplet molecular exciton lifetime.

Recyclable calix[4]arene–lanthanoid luminescent hybrid materials with color-tuning and color-switching properties

Inorganic-organic hybrid materials combine the properties of both components providing functionality with a wide range of potential applications. Phase segregation of the inorganic and organic components is a common challenge in these systems, which is overcome here by copolymerizing a metal-free calixarene ionophore and methyl methacrylate. A lanthanoid ion is then added using a swelling-deswelling procedure. The resulting luminescent hybrid materials can be made to emit any required color, including white light, by loading with an appropriate mixture of lanthanoids. The gradation of the emitted color can also be finely adjusted by changing the excitation wavelength. The polymer monolith can be recycled to emit a different color by swelling with a solution containing a different lanthanoid ion. This methodology is flexible and has the potential to be extended to many different ionophores and polymer matrices.

Ionophoric properties of a tetra-tetrazole functionalised calix[4]arene

The synthesis and characterisation of p-t-butylcalix[4]arene functionalised at the lower rim with four tetrazole moieties is reported. The macrocycle is found to be a poorer ionophore for lanthanoid cations than the bis-tetrazole–substituted analogue. Solution-phase photophysical studies strongly suggested that the cations interacted only weakly with the calixarene ligand. A mixed sodium/triethylammonium salt of the calixarene ligand was crystallised in the presence of lanthanoid cations and structurally characterised. Strong intramolecular interactions are hypothesised to be the cause of the observed behaviour.