Remote Control by π-Conjugation of the Emissive Properties of Fischer Carbene-BODIPY Dyads

The synthesis, structure, and complete characterization of mono- and bimetallic dyads joining Fischer carbene complexes and BODIPY chromophores, are reported. In these organometallic species, the Fischer carbene complex is attached to the BODIPY moiety through a p-aminophenyl group linked at the C8 carbon atom of the BODIPY core. The photophysical properties, namely the corresponding UV/vis absorption and emission spectra of these new metal-carbene complexes, are analyzed and discused. It is found that whereas the absorption of the considered dyads strongly resembles that of the parent 4-anilinyl-substituted BODIPY, the fluorescence emission is significantly reduced in these species, very likely as a result of a Forster-type energy transfer mechanism. At variance, the replacement of the pentacarbonyl-metal(0) fragment by a carbonyl group leads to high fluorescence emission intensity. In: addition, the emissive properties of the BODIPY core in these organometallic dyads can be tuned by remote groups by means of pi-conjugation, as supported by density functional theory calculations.