Autor: |
Tatarin SV; Kurnakov Institute of General and Inorganic Chemistry, Russian Academy of Sciences, Leninskii pr. 31, Moscow 119991, Russia. stas.bezzubov@gmail.com., Smirnov DE; Kurnakov Institute of General and Inorganic Chemistry, Russian Academy of Sciences, Leninskii pr. 31, Moscow 119991, Russia. stas.bezzubov@gmail.com., Taydakov IV; P.N. Lebedev Physical Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, 53 Leninsky Prospect, Moscow 119991, Russia., Metlin MT; P.N. Lebedev Physical Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, 53 Leninsky Prospect, Moscow 119991, Russia.; Bauman Moscow State Technical University, 2-ya Baumanskaya Str. 5/1, 105005, Moscow, Russia., Emets VV; Frumkin Institute of Physical Chemistry and Electrochemistry, Russian Academy of Sciences, Leninskii pr. 31, Moscow 119071, Russia., Bezzubov SI; Kurnakov Institute of General and Inorganic Chemistry, Russian Academy of Sciences, Leninskii pr. 31, Moscow 119991, Russia. stas.bezzubov@gmail.com. |
Abstrakt: |
The synthesis, structure, optical and redox properties as well as photovoltaic studies of iridium(III) complexes with cyclometalated 2-arylbenzimidazoles decorated with various polyaromatic fragments and an ancillary aromatic β-diketone are reported. Despite the strong preference of the iridium(III) ion to form bis- or tris-cyclometalated complexes in which the metal participates in five-membered metallacycles, the cyclometalation of the benzimidazole ligands containing rigid π-extended systems yields dimeric complexes containing strained five- or six-membered metallacycles and allows for generating an extremely rare monocyclometalated complex. X-ray crystallography shows that the steric strain observed in the dimers is retained in heteroleptic diketonate complexes which is also corroborated by gas-phase DFT calculations. While emission maxima and redox potentials of the heteroleptic complexes exhibit just a moderate variation upon the change of the cyclometalated ligands, the extension of the π-system of the benzimidazole ligands give the complexes remarkable light absorption in the visible spectral range, which meets the requirements for application in dye-sensitized solar cells. At the titania photoanodes, these iridium dyes retain their optical properties and exhibit power conversion efficiencies under standard AM 1.5 G conditions comparable to those of other iridium-based sensitizers. These results demonstrate that the size and position of the π-extended fragment in cyclometalated ligands can modulate not only the electronic structure of the corresponding iridium(III) complexes, but also affect their composition, structure and reactivity that may find implications in future design of emerging iridium dyes, emitters and catalysts. |