Coinage metal cyanides efficiently react with a triphosphine. PPh2C6H4-PPh-C6H4PPh2 (P(3)). to give the complexes M(P(3))CN, where M = Cu (1), Ag (2), and Au (3), which can further interact with coordinatively unsaturated metal centers [M(P(3))](+) to give the homobimetallic [(P(3))M-CN-M(P(3))](+)X(-) [M = Cu (4a with X(-) = CF3SO3(-) and 4b with X(-) = BF4(-)), Ag (5)] or heterometallic [(P(3))Au-CN-Ag(P(3))](+) (6) species. Extension of this approach also provided the trinuclear complex [(P(3))Cu-NC-Au-CN-Cu(P(3))](+) (7). Compounds 1-5 were characterized in the solid state by X-ray crystallography. The NMR spectroscopic studies revealed that all of the complexes except 6 retain their structures in solution. The title compounds are luminescent in the solid state, with quantum yields ranging from 8 to 87%. The observed photoemission originates mainly from the metal-to-ligand charge-transfer states according to time-dependent density functional theory computational studies. The crystalline bimetallic Cu complexes 4a/4b demonstrate extremely high sensitivity of the emission intensity to molecular O2 (KSV1 = 639 atm(-1) and LOD = 0.010% for 3 times the signal-to-noise ratio).

The series of chelating phosphine ligands, which contain bidentate P 2 (bis[(2-diphenylphosphino)phenyl] ether, DPEphos; 4,5-bis(diphenylphosphino)-9,9-dimethylxanthene, Xantphos; 1,2-bis(diphenylphosphino)benzene, dppb), tridentate P 3 (bis(2-diphenylphosphinophenyl)phenylphosphine), and tetradentate P 4 (tris(2-diphenylphosphino)phenylphosphine) ligands, was used for the preparation of the corresponding dinuclear [M(μ 2 -SCN) P 2 ] 2 (M = Cu, 1 , 3 , 5 ; M = Ag, 2 , 4 , 6 ) and mononuclear [CuNCS( P 3 /P 4 )] ( 7 , 9 ) and [AgSCN( P 3 /P 4 )] ( 8 , 10 ) complexes. The reactions of P 4 with silver salts in a 1:2 molar ratio produce tetranuclear clusters [Ag 2 (μ 3 -SCN)(t-SCN)( P 4 )] 2 ( 11 ) and [Ag 2 (μ 3 -SCN)( P 4 )] 2 2+ ( 12 ). Complexes 7 – 11 bearing terminally coordinated SCN ligands were efficiently converted into derivatives 13 – 17 with the weakly coordinating – SCN:B(C 6 F 5 ) 3 isothiocyanatoborate ligand. Compounds 1 and 5 – 17 exhibit thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) behavior in the solid state. The excited states of thiocyanate species are dominated by the ligand to ligand SCN → π(phosphine) charge transfer transitions mixed with a variable contribution of MLCT. The boronation of SCN groups changes the nature of both the S 1 and T 1 states to (L + M)LCT d,p(M, P) → π(phosphine). The localization of the excited states on the aromatic systems of the phosphine ligands determines a wide range of luminescence energies achieved for the title complexes (λ em varies from 448 nm for 1 to 630 nm for 10c ). The emission of compounds 10 and 15 , based on the P 4 ligand, strongly depends on the solid-state packing (λ em = 505 and 625 nm for...

A potentially tridentate hemilabile ligand, PPh2-C6H4-PPh(O)-C6H4-PPh2 (P(3)O), has been used for the construction of a family of bimetallic complexes [MM'(P(3)O)2](2+) (M = M' = Cu (1), Ag (2), Au (3); M = Au, M' = Cu (4)) and their mononuclear halide congeners M(P(3)O)Hal (M = Cu (5-7), Ag (8-10)). Compounds 1-10 have been characterized in the solid state by single-crystal X-ray diffraction analysis to reveal a variable coordination mode of the phosphine-oxide group of the P(3)O ligand depending on the preferable number of coordination vacancies on the metal center. According to the theoretical studies, the interaction of the hard donor P[double bond, length as m-dash]O moiety with d(10) ions becomes less effective in the order Cu > Ag > Au. 1-10 exhibit room temperature luminescence in the solid state, and the intensity and energy of emission are mostly determined by the nature of metal atoms. The photophysical characteristics of the monometallic species were compared with those of the related compounds M(P(3))Hal (11-16) with the non-oxidized ligand P(3). It was found that in the case of the copper complexes 5-7 the P(3)O hybrid ligand introduces effective non-radiative pathways of the excited state relaxation leading to poor emission, while for the silver luminophores the P[double bond, length as m-dash]O group leads mainly to the modulation of luminescence wavelength.