Transferring the entatic-state principle to copper photochemistry.

The entatic state denotes a distorted coordination geometry of a complex from its typical arrangement that generates an improvement to its function. The entatic-state principle has been observed to apply to copper electron-transfer proteins and it results in a lowering of the reorganization energy of the electron-transfer process. It is thus crucial for a multitude of biochemical processes, but its importance to photoactive complexes is unexplored. Here we study a copper complex-with a specifically designed constraining ligand geometry-that exhibits metal-to-ligand charge-transfer state lifetimes that are very short. The guanidine-quinoline ligand used here acts on the bis(chelated) copper(I) centre, allowing only small structural changes after photoexcitation that result in very fast structural dynamics. The data were collected using a multimethod approach that featured time-resolved ultraviolet-visible, infrared and X-ray absorption and optical emission spectroscopy. Through supporting density functional calculations, we deliver a detailed picture of the structural dynamics in the picosecond-to-nanosecond time range.

Donor-driven conformational flexibility in a real-life catalytic dicopper(ii) peroxo complex.

The conformers of the real-life tyrosinase model [Cu2O2{HC(3-tBuPz)2(Py)}2](2+) which displays catalytic hydroxylation reactivity were investigated by density functional theory (DFT) studies including second-order perturbation theory and charge decomposition analysis (CDA). We elucidated the donor competition between pyrazolyl and pyridinyl moieties and found that pyrazolyl units are the stronger donors in bis(pyrazolyl)pyridinylmethane copper complexes. Geometry optimisations and TD-DFT calculations on all conformers proved to be robust in the prediction of the experimental data: the XAS distances and both charge-transfer bands are well reproduced. The CDA analyses gave insights into the electronic structure of the real-life peroxo dicopper species. The donor interplay as well as the multitude of interactions within two prototypical conformers have now been dissected in detail for the first time for a catalytic real-life system without simplifications. We find that the N donor interactions to the core are extremely stabilising and that in the conformer with both pyrazolyl units in equatorial position, these interactions are more stabilising than the axial ones. In the conformer with pyridinyl/pyrazolyl equator, the picture is more mixed but the general trend keeps consistent. We relate the extraordinary catalytic activity of the [Cu2O2{HC(3-tBuPz)2(Py)}2](2+) system to the subtle interplay of the different donor moieties.

Bis-µ-oxo and µ-η2:η2-peroxo dicopper complexes studied within (time-dependent) density-functional and many-body perturbation theory.

Based on the equilibrium geometries of [Cu2(dbdmed)2O2](2+) and [Cu2(en)2O2](2+) obtained within density-functional theory, we investigate their molecular electronic structure and optical response. Thereby results from occupation-constrained as well as time-dependent DFT (ΔSCF and TDDFT) are compared with Green's function-based approaches within many-body perturbation theory such as the GW approximation (GWA) to the quasiparticle energies and the Bethe-Salpeter equation (BSE) approach to the optical absorption. Concerning the ground-state energies and geometries, no clear trend with respect to the amount of exact exchange in the DFT calculations is found, and a strong dependence on the basis sets is to be noted. They affect the energy difference between bis-µ-oxo and µ-η(2):η(2)-peroxo complexes by as much as 0.8 eV (18 kcal/mol). Even stronger, up to 5 eV is the influence of the exchange-correlation functional on the gap values obtained from the Kohn-Sham eigenvalues. Not only the value itself but also the trends observed upon the bis-µ-oxo to µ-η(2):η(2)-peroxo transition are affected. In contrast, excitation energies obtained from ΔSCF and TDDFT are comparatively robust with respect to the details of the calculations. Noteworthy, in particular, is the near quantitative agreement between TDDFT and GWA+BSE for the optical spectra of [Cu2(en)2O2](2+).