We report on the synthesis and physical chemical characterization of a class of heteroleptic mononuclear cyclometalated bis(phenylpyridine)iridium(III) complexes with tetrazolate chelate ligands, such as the deprotonated form of 2-(1 H-tetrazol-5-yl)pyridine ( PyTzH), 2-(1 H-tetrazol-5-yl)pyrazine ( PzTzH), and 5-bromo-2-(1 H-tetrazol-5-yl)pyridine ( BrPyTzH). The electrochemical and photophysical investigations of the resulting iridium(III) complexes revealed a rather wide span of redox and emission properties as a consequence of the nature of the ancillary tetrazolate ligand. In particular, within a series of the three neutral species, the emission observed changes from the blue-green of the pyridyltetrazolate complex to the red of that containing the pyrazinyltetrazolate ligand. The bromo-containing species, despite it displaying poor photophysical performances, is a synthetically attractive building block for the construction of polymetallic architectures. Moreover, the investigation of the reactivity toward electrophiles of one of the neutral mononuclear complexes, by methylation of the coordinated tetrazolate ligand, has also allowed further tuning of the electronic properties. In the latter case, the emission color tuning is also associated with a simple method for the conversion of a neutral species, a potentially triplet emitter for organic light-emitting devices, into the corresponding methylated cation, which might be used as a dopant for light-emitting electrochemical cell type devices or as a marker for biological labeling.

A new family of mono- and dinuclear ruthenium polypyridyl complexes containing 5-aryltetrazolate ligands such as the deprotonated form of 4-(1H-tetrazol-5-yl)benzonitrile (4-TBNH) and bis(1H-tetrazol-5-yl)benzene (BTBH(2)) have been synthesized and thoroughly characterized. The reactivity of the mononuclear species toward different electrophiles such as H(+) and CH(3)(+) has been investigated, and the effects of the resulting regioselective electrophilic attacks on the electronic and structural properties of the tetrazolate ligand have been studied by NMR ((1)H, (13)C) spectroscopy and X-ray crystal structures. Absorption and emission spectroscopy, together with an electrochemical and UV-vis-NIR spectroelectrochemical investigation of the uncoordinated ligand and complexes, has been performed, highlighting a rather good luminescence efficiency and a poor bridge-mediated electronic communication between the metal centers of the dinuclear complexes. The electrogenerated chemiluminescence (ECL) of the dinuclear species has been explored, and for one of these, an exceptionally high ECL efficiency has been observed, comparable to that of [Ru(bpy)(3)](2+), which is considered a standard in ECL studies.

Four Cu(I) complexes with general formulas [Cu(N^N)(2)][BF(4)] and [(P^P)Cu(N^N)][BF(4)] were prepared, where N^N stands for 2-(2-tert-butyl-2H-tetrazol-5-yl)pyridine and P^P is a chelating diphosphine, namely bis-(diphenylphosphino)methane (dppm), bis-(diphenylphosphino)ethane (dppe) or bis[2-(diphenylphosphino)phenyl]ether (POP). In an acetonitrile medium, the Electro-Spray Ionization Mass Spectrometry (ESI-MS) determination provided the preliminary evidence for the occurrence of the dppm-containing complex as a mixture of a cationic mononuclear [Cu(N^N)(dppm)](+) species and a bis-cationic dinuclear [Cu(2)(N^N)(2)(dppm)(2)](2+)-type compound. Definitive evidence of peculiar structural features came from X-ray crystallography, which showed both the dppm- and, unexpectedly, the dppe-based heteroleptic compounds to crystallize as diphosphine-bridged Cu(I) dimers, unlike [Cu(N^N)(2)](+) and [(POP)Cu(N^N)](+) which are mononuclear species. In solutions of non-coordinating solvents, (31)P NMR studies at variable temperatures and dilution titrations confirmed that the dppm-based complex undergoes a monomer-dimer dynamic equilibrium, while the dppe-containing complex occurs as the bis-cationic dinuclear species, [Cu(2)(N^N)(2)(dppe)(2)](2+), within a concentration range comprised between 10(-2) and 10(-4) M. Differences among heteroleptic complexes might be related to the smaller natural bite angle displayed by dppm and dppe phosphine ligands (72° and 85°, respectively), with respect to that reported for POP (102°). The electrochemical features of the new species have been investigated by cyclic voltammetry. Despite the irreversible and complicated redox behaviour, which is typical for copper complexes, the reductions have been attributed to the tetrazole ligand whereas the oxidations are characterized as Cu(I/II) processes with a substantial contribution from the P^P-based ligands in the case of the heteroleptic species. All the four complexes are weakly or not luminescent in CH(2)Cl(2) solution, but heteroleptic complexes are bright green luminophores in a solid matrix, with quantum yields as high as 45% (dppm complex) even at room temperature. This makes them potential candidates as cheap emitting materials for electroluminescent devices.

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The synthesis of new Fe(II) 5-aryl tetrazolate complexes [CpFe(CO)(L)(N4C−C6H4−CN)] (4) [L = CO (4a); PPh3 (4b); P(OCH3)3 (4c); CN-2,6-Me2C6H3 (4d)] is described. The target compounds were obtained by addition of sodium azide to the parent 1,4-dicyanobenzene complexes [CpFe(CO)(L)(NC−C6H4−CN)][O3SCF3] (2a−d). X-ray molecular structure of 4c confirms the predictions based on NMR (1H, 13C) studies concerning the coplanarity between the tetrazole and phenyl rings, with consequent interannular conjugation effect. The multidentate nature of the tetrazole ring involves the presence of different sites that can undergo electrophilic attack; reaction of complexes 4a−c with methyl triflate afforded the methylated cationic complexes [CpFe(CO)(L)(CH3−N4C−C6H4−CN)][O3SCF3], 5a−c, whose 1H and 13C NMR spectroscopy data suggested out-of-plane rotation of the phenyl ring and subsequent large reduction of interannular conjugation. Noteworthy, the same effect was obtained in a reversible way by addition of triflic acid to 4a, affording the protonated cationic complex [CpFe(CO)2(H−N4C−C6H4−CN)][O3SCF3], 6a, which was easily converted into its neutral precursor by treatment with a base.

In this contribution, we report the synthesis, the chemical and photophysical characterization, and the study of the reactivity toward electrophiles of two mononuclear complexes of the type [Ru(bpy)2L]+ (bpy is 2,2'-bipyridyl), in which L is represented by the deprotonated form of 2-(1,H-tetrazol-5-yl)pyridine (L1) or 2-(1,H-tetrazol-5-yl)pyrazine (L2). The 1H and 13C NMR experiments that were performed on complexes RuL1 and RuL2 allowed us to establish that the tetrazolate moiety is bonded to the metal center via the N-1 nitrogen, while the coplanar arrangement adopted by the coordinated ligand upon coordination and the consequent interannular conjugation effect accounts for the unexpectedly low field resonance of the tetrazole carbon. The 13C NMR spectroscopy is also of fundamental importance to determine the chemo- and regioselectivity of the addition of a methyl group to RuL1 and RuL2, which takes place at the N-3 nitrogen of the five-membered ring. All these features were confirmed by the X-ray diffraction structures of RuL1 and of the methylated compounds RuL1Me and RuL2Me. Relative to these latter complexes, the presence of a methyl moiety does not cause any distortion from coplanarity of the coordinated tetrazolates. The redox properties of the complexes were investigated by cyclic voltammetry and indicated a quite different behavior between the pyrazinyl-tetrazolate and the pyridyl-tetrazolate complexes as the consequence of the higher electron-withdrawing character of the pyrazine ring. The study of the photophysical properties of the complexes also shows a significant diversity between the luminescent RuL1 and the rather poorly emissive RuL2. Interestingly, the methylated compounds RuL1Me and RuL2Me display radiative excited-state decays with longer lifetimes than their precursors; this feature indicates that methylation is a useful reaction for the tuning of the light emission performances of similar tetrazolate complexes. The synthesis and the characterization of a novel dinuclear complex of type [(bpy)2Ru-L3-Ru(bpy)2]2+, Ru(L3)Ru, where L3 is the bis-anion derived from bis-2,3-(1,H-tetrazol-5-yl)pyrazine, is also reported.

One of the distinct features of metal-tetrazolate complexes is the possibility of performing electrophilic additions onto the imine-type nitrogens of the coordinated five-membered ring. These reactions, in particular, provide a useful tool for varying the main structural and electronic properties of the starting tetrazolate complexes. In this paper, we demonstrate how the use of a simple protonation-deprotonation protocol enables us to reversibly change, to a significant extent, the light-emission output and performance of a series of Re(I)-tetrazolate-based phosphors of the general formulation fac-[Re(N(∧)N)(CO)3L], where N(∧)N denotes diimine-type ligands such as 2,2'-bipyridine (bpy) or 1,10-phenanthroline (phen) and L represents a series of different 5-aryl tetrazolates. Indeed, upon addition of triflic acid to these neutral Re(I) complexes, a consistent blue shift (Δλmax ca. 50 nm) of the emission maximum is observed and the protonated species also display increased quantum yield values (4-13 times greater than the starting compounds) and longer decay lifetimes. This alteration can be reversed to the initial condition by further treating the protonated Re(I) complex with a base such as triethylamine. Interestingly, the reversible modulation of luminescent features by the same protonation-deprotonation mechanism appears as a quite general characteristic of photoactive metal tetrazolate complexes, even for compounds in which the 2-pyridyl tetrazolate ligands coordinate the metal center with a bidentate mode, such as the corresponding Ir(III) cyclometalates [Ir(C(∧)N)2L] and the Ru(II) polypyridyl derivatives [Ru(bpy)2L](+). In these cases, the protonation of the starting materials leads to red-shifted and more intense emissions for the Ir(III) complexes, while almost complete quenching is observed in the case of the Ru(II) analogues.

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