Tetradentate N∧N°N∧N-type luminophores for Pt(II) complexes: Synthesis, photophysical and quantum-chemical investigation

Herein we report on dianionic tetradentate, pyridin-azole-based ligands for luminescent Pt(II) complexes. To improve their solubility in common organic solvents, a hexyl-chain was inserted in the periphery of the luminophoric ligand and different substituents were introduced at the 1H-pyrazole moieties including 4-hexylphenyl(L1), adamantyl- (L2) and 3,5-dimethoxyphenyl (L3) substituents. For the new ligand precursors L1 and L2, the corresponding Pt(II) complexes Pt1 and Pt2 were synthesized and characterized by exact mass spectrometry as well as by H-1 NMR. L3 was also successfully synthesized and isolated, but due to the limited solubility of the resulting coordination compound, the purification and structural characterization of the corresponding Pt(II) complex Pt3 was not achieved. The absorption and steady-state as well as time-resolved photoluminescence spectra of Pt1 and Pt2 were investigated and interpreted employing TD-DFT. We found that the S1 states for Pt1 and Pt2 can be described mainly as single electron HOMO -> LUMO excitations with a 1MP-ILCT character comprising the diazole units and the pyridine rings. At room temperature, Pt1 and Pt2 show phosphorescence in the green region of the electromagnetic spectrum peaking at 506 nm and 497 nm with photoluminescence quantum yields reaching 17% and 25%, respectively. DFT calculations show that the T1 states of Pt1 and Pt2 can be mainly described as monoelectronic HOMO -> LUMO excitations with predominant 3MP-ILCT character.