Effect of Oligomer Length on Photophysical Properties of Platinum Acetylide Donor-Acceptor-Donor Oligomers.

We report a systematic study that explores how the triplet excited state is influenced by conjugation length in a series of benzothiadiazole units containing donor-acceptor-donor (DAD)-type platinum acetylide oligomers and polymer. The singlet and triplet excited states for the series were characterized by an array of photophysical methods including steady-state luminescence spectroscopy and femtosecond-nanosecond transient absorption spectroscopy. In addition to the experimental work, a computational study using density functional theory was conducted to gain more information about the structure, composition, and energies of the frontier molecular orbitals. It is observed that both the singlet and triplet excited states are mainly localized on a single donor-acceptor-donor unit in the oligomers. Interestingly, it is discovered that the intersystem crossing efficiency increases dramatically in the longer oligomers. The effect is attributed to an enhanced contribution of the heavy metal platinum in the frontier orbitals (HOMO and LUMO), an effect that leads to enhanced spin-orbit coupling.

Triplet excited state properties in variable gap π-conjugated donor-acceptor-donor chromophores.

A series of variable band-gap donor-acceptor-donor (DAD) chromophores capped with platinum(ii) acetylide units has been synthesized and fully characterized by electrochemical and photophysical methods, with particular emphasis placed on probing triplet excited state properties. A counter-intuitive trend of increasing fluorescence quantum efficiency and lifetime with decreasing excited state energy (optical gap) is observed across the series of DAD chromophores. Careful study of the excited state dynamics, including triplet yields (as inferred from singlet oxygen sensitization), reveals that the underlying origin of the unusual trend in the fluorescence parameters is that the singlet-triplet intersystem crossing rate and yield decrease with decreasing optical gap. It is concluded that the rate of intersystem crossing decreases as the LUMO is increasingly localized on the acceptor unit in the DAD chromophore, and this result is interpreted as arising because the extent of spin-orbit coupling induced by the platinum heavy metal centers decreases as the LUMO is more localized on the acceptor. In addition to the trend in intersystem crossing, the results show that the triplet decay rates follow the Energy Gap Law correlation over a 1.8 eV range of triplet energy and 1000-fold range of triplet decay rates. Finally, femtosecond transient absorption studies for the DAD chromophores reveals a strong absorption in the near-infrared region which is attributed to the singlet excited state. This spectral band appears to be general for DAD chromophores, and may be a signature of the charge transfer (CT) singlet excited state.

π-Conjugated Organometallic Isoindigo Oligomer and Polymer Chromophores: Singlet and Triplet Excited State Dynamics and Application in Polymer Solar Cells.

An isoindigo based π-conjugated oligomer and polymer that contain cyclometalated platinum(II) "auxochrome" units were subjected to photophysical characterization, and application of the polymer in bulk heterojunction polymer solar cells with PCBM acceptor was examined. The objective of the study was to explore the effect of the heavy metal centers on the excited state properties, in particular, intersystem crossing to a triplet (exciton) state, and further how this would influence the performance of the organometallic polymer in solar cells. The materials were characterized by electrochemistry, ground state absorption, emission, and picosecond-nanosecond transient absorption spectroscopy. Electrochemical measurements indicate that the cyclometalated units have a significant impact on the HOMO energy level of the chromophores, but little effect on the LUMO, which is consistent with localization of the LUMO on the isoindigo acceptor unit. Picosecond-nanosecond transient absorption spectroscopy reveals a transient with ∼100 ns lifetime that is assigned to a triplet excited state that is produced by intersystem crossing from a singlet state on a time scale of ∼130 ps. This is the first time that a triplet state has been observed for isoindigo π-conjugated chromophores. The performance of the polymer in bulk heterojunction solar cells was explored with PC61BM as an acceptor. The performance of the cells was optimum at a relatively high PCBM loading (1:6, polymer:PCBM), but the overall efficiency was relatively low with power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 0.22%. Atomic force microscopy of blend films reveals that the length scale of the phase separation decreases with increasing PCBM content, suggesting a reason for the increase in PCE with acceptor loading. Energetic considerations show that the triplet state in the polymer is too low in energy to undergo charge separation with PCBM. Further, due to the relatively low LUMO energy of the polymer, charge transfer from the singlet to PCBM is only weakly exothermic, which is believed to be the reason that the photocurrent efficiency is relatively low.

Photophysics and Nonlinear Absorption of Gold(I) and Platinum(II) Donor-Acceptor-Donor Chromophores.

A series of Au(I) and Pt(II) acetylide complexes of a π-conjugated donor-acceptor-donor (D-A-D) chromophore were studied to develop quantitative structure-property relationships for their photophysical and nonlinear optical properties. The D-A-D chromophore consists of a "TBT" unit, where T = 3-hexyl-2,5-thienylene and BTD = 2,1,3-benzothiadiazole, capped with ethynylene groups. The D-A-D chromophore is functionalized with Au(I)PR3 (R = -Me and -Ph) and trans-Pt(II)(PR3)2-CCPh (R = -Me and -Bu) "auxochromes". All of the metal complexes were characterized by ground-state absorption, photoluminescence, nanosecond transient absorption, and two-photon absorption (2PA) spectroscopy. The experiments provided quantitative values of the photophysical parameters, including rates for radiative decay and intersystem crossing (ISC), triplet yields, and two-photon absorption cross sections. Pronounced solvatochromism in the fluorescence spectra suggests an enhanced dipole moment in the excited state of the complexes compared to the unmetalated TBT chromophore. The gold complexes feature larger fluorescence quantum yields and longer emission lifetimes compared to platinum. The Pt(II) complexes exhibit enhanced triplet-triplet absorption, reduced triplet-state lifetimes, and larger singlet oxygen quantum yields, consistent with more efficient ISC compared to the Au(I) complexes. When excited by 100 fs pulses, all of the D-A-D chromophores exhibit moderate two-photon absorption in the near-infrared between 700 and 900 nm. The 2PA cross section for the Au(I) complexes is almost the same as the unmetalated D-A-D chromophore (∼100 GM). The Pt(II) complexes exhibit significantly enhanced 2PA compared to the other chromophores, reaching 1000 GM at 750 nm. Taken together, the results indicate that the Pt(II) center is considerably more effective in inducing singlet-triplet ISC and in enhancing the 2PA cross section. This result reveals the greater promise for Pt(II) acetylides in chromophores for temporal and frequency agile nonlinear absorption.

Platinum carbon bond formation via Cu(I) catalyzed Stille-type transmetallation: reaction scope and spectroscopic study of platinum-arylene complexes.

The preparation of Pt(ii) complexes of the type trans-L2Pt(Ar)Cl, L2Pt(Ar)2, and L2Pt(Ar)(Ar') (L = PBu3, Ar = arylene) by CuI catalyzed reaction of cis-(PBu3)2PtCl2 with aryl-stannanes is reported. The reactions proceed at 25-60 °C in moderate to good yields. The reaction is demonstrated to occur with phenyl- and 2-thienyl-stannanes that include a variety of functionality, and all of the resulting Pt-aryl complexes were fully characterized by (1)H, (13)C, and (31)PNMR spectroscopy, as well as mass spectroscopy. Photophysical properties of the L2Pt(Ar)2, and L2Pt(Ar)(Ar') complexes were measured, including steady-state absorption, photoluminescence, and photoluminescence quantum yields, in order to understand how attachment of the platinum metal influences the excited state properties of the arylene ligands. This work affirms that CuI catalyzed coupling between Ar-SnR3 and L2PtCl2 is a useful platinum-carbon bond formation reaction.

Photophysics of organometallic platinum(II) derivatives of the diketopyrrolopyrrole chromophore.

A pair of diketopyrrolopyrrole (DPP) chromophores that are end-functionalized with platinum containing "auxochromes" were subjected to electrochemical and photophysical study. The chromophores contain either platinum acetylide or ortho-metalated 2-thienylpyridinyl(platinum) end-groups (DPP-Pt(CC) and DPP-Pt(acac), respectively). The ground state redox potentials of the chromophores were determined by solution electrochemistry, and the HOMO and LUMO levels were estimated. The chromophores' photophysical properties were characterized by absorption, photoluminescence, and time-resolved absorption spectroscopy on time scales from sub-picoseconds to microseconds. Density functional theory (DFT) computations were performed to understand the molecular orbitals involved in both the singlet and triplet excited state photophysics. The results reveal that in both platinum DPP derivatives the organometallic auxochromes have a significant effect on the chromophores' photophysics. The most profound effect is a reduction in the fluorescence yields accompanied by enhanced triplet yields due to spin-orbit coupling induced by the metal centers. The effects are most pronounced in DPP-Pt(acac), indicating that the orthometalated platinum auxochrome is able to induce spin-orbital coupling to a greater extent compared to the platinum acetylide units.

Photophysical properties of trans-platinum acetylide complexes featuring N-heterocyclic carbene ligands.

A series of trans-N-heterocyclic carbene (NHC) platinum(ii) acetylide complexes of the form (ICy)2Pt(R)2 (where ICy = 1,3-bis-(cyclohexyl)imidazol-2-ylidene and R = 1-Ethynyl-4-(phenylethynyl)benzene (PE2), 2-(9,9-Diethyl-9H-fluoren-7-yl)benzo[d]thiazole (BTF), and 9,9-Diethyl-7-ethynyl-N,N-diphenyl-9H-fluoren-2-amine (DPAF), respectively), were synthesized via Hagihara reaction of the unprotected aryl-acetylide ligands with trans-(ICy)2PtCl2 () in 47-73% yield. Precursor was generated in a one-pot synthesis via formation of a silver carbene precursor followed by transmetallation, and was obtained in high yield (95%). The single-crystal X-ray structures of , were determined and analyzed. The photophysical properties of were compared to their respective tributyl phosphine (PBu3) analogues. The optical properties of the series were studied by UV-Vis spectroscopy, photoluminescence spectroscopy, nanosecond transient absorption spectroscopy, and open aperture nanosecond z-scan. Coupling of the organic chromophores to the platinum center affords efficient intersystem crossing as concluded by the complexes' low fluorescence quantum yields, efficient phosphorescence and intense T1 - Tn absorption. Open aperture z-scan with 606 nm, 10 ns laser pulses showed comparable optical attenuation relative to a standard sample of (PBu3)2Pt(DPAF)2 (). Pulse limiting was achieved via a dual-mechanism of two-photon absorption (2PA) coupled with excited-state absorption (ESA). TD-DFT Computations were also employed for to give greater insight into the nature of the singlet-singlet electronic transitions.

Photophysics of platinum tetrayne oligomers: delocalization of triplet exciton.

A series of platinum tetrayne oligomers, all-trans-Cl-Pt(P2)-[(C≡C)4-Pt(P2)]n-Cl, where P = tri(p-tolyl)phosphine and n = 1-3, was subjected to a detailed photophysical investigation. The photoluminescence of each oligomer at low temperature (T < 140 K) in a 2-methyltetrahydrofuran (Me-THF) glass features an intense and narrow 0-0 phosphorescence band accompanied by a vibronic progression of sub-bands separated by ca. 2100 cm(-1). The emission arises from a (3)π,π* triplet state concentrated on the (C≡C)4 carbon chain and the vibronic progression originates from coupling of the excitation to the ν(C≡C) stretch. All of the experimental data including ambient temperature absorption, low-temperature photoluminescence, and ambient temperature transient absorption spectroscopy provide clear evidence that the triplet state is localized on a chromophore consisting of approximately two -[(C≡C)4-Pt(P2)]- repeat units. Density functional theory calculations support the hypothesis that the triplet-triplet absorption arises from transitions that are delocalized over two repeat units.