Fine-Tuning the Luminescence and HOMO-LUMO Energy Levels in Tetranuclear Gold(I) Fluorinated Amidinate Complexes

Tetranuclear gold(I) fluorinated amidinate complexes have been synthesized and their photophysical properties and structures described. DFT calculations were carried out to illustrate how a minor change in the ligand resulted in a loss of emission in the perfluorophenyl amidinate complex compared with nonfluorinated phenyl amidinate complexes reported previously. The fluorinated complexes reported here [Au(ArN)(2)C(H)](4) (1, Ar = 4-FC6H4; 2, 3,5-F2C6H3; 3, 2,4,6-F3C6H2; 4, 2,3,5,6-F4C6H) emit in the blue-green region at 470, 1, 478, 2, 508, 3, and 450 nm, 4, by excitation at ca. 375 nm at room temperature with nanosecond lifetimes. The emissions observed at 77 K in the solid state show structured emission for complexes 1 and 2, with a vibrational spacing of ca. 1200 and 1500 cm(-1), corresponding to the vibrational modes of the amidinate ligand. The pentafluorophenyl derivative 5, Ar = C6F5, shows no photoluminescence in the solid state nor in the solution. This result is different from results in which the pentafluorophenyl group is attached to a phenylpyridine ligand in an Ir(III) complex and other organics. This quenching appears to be related to a nonradiative de-excitation process caused by the pi pi*-pi sigma* crossover in the excited state of the pentafluorophenyl amidinate ligand. With increasing numbers of fluorine atoms, there is a progressive decrease in the contribution of the amidinate ligands to the corresponding HOMO orbital. There also is a slight decrease in the ligand contribution to the LUMO with increased numbers of fluorine atoms and an exchange of the character of the orbitals of the gold centers.