Chromo- and Fluorogenic Organometallic Sensors

Compounds that change their absorption and/or emission properties in the presence of a target ion or molecule have been studied for many years as the basis for optical sensing. Within this group of compounds, a variety of organometallic complexes have been proposed for the detection of a wide range of analytes such as cations (including H+), anions, gases (e.g. O 2, SO2, organic vapours), small organic molecules, and large biomolecules (e.g. proteins, DNA). This chapter focuses on work reported within the last few years in the area of organometallic sensors. Some of the most extensively studied systems incorporate metal moieties with intense long-lived metal-to-ligand charge transfer (MLCT) excited states as the reporter or indicator unit, such as fac-tricarbonyl Re(I) complexes, cyclometallated Ir(III) species, and diimine Ru(II) or Os(II) derivatives. Other commonly used organometallic sensors are based on Pt-alkynyls and ferrocene fragments. To these reporters, an appropriate recognition or analyte-binding unit is usually attached so that a detectable modification on the colour and/or the emission of the complex occurs upon binding of the analyte. Examples of recognition sites include macrocycles for the binding of cations, H-bonding units selective to specific anions, and DNA intercalating fragments. A different approach is used for the detection of some gases or vapours, where the sensor's response is associated with changes in the crystal packing of the complex on absorption of the gas, or to direct coordination of the analyte to the metal centre

Examination of the Silver Colloid Binding Behavior of Disulfide-Tethered Bipyridine Ligands and Their fac-Tricarbonylrhenium(I) Complexes

The syntheses of 2,2'-bipyridin-5-ylmethyl-5-(1,2-dithiolan-3-yl)pentanoate (L1) and N-(2,2'-bipyridin-5-ylmethyl)-5-(1,2-dithiolan-3-yl)pentanamide (L2) and their neutral fac carbonylrhenium(I) complexes [Re(L1)(CO)(3)Br] and [Re(L2)(CO)(3)Br] are reported. The. electronic absorption and emission spectra of the complexes are similar to the spectrum of the reference compound [Re(bipy)(CO)(3)Br] and correlate well with the density functional theory calculations undertaken. The surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) spectra (excited at both 532 and 785 nm) of the ligands and complexes were examined and compared to the spectrum of ethyl 5-(1,2-dithiolan-3-yl)pentanoate (L3), revealing that there is very little contribution to the spectra of these species from the dithiolated alkyl chains. The spectra are dominated by the characteristic peaks of a metalated 2,2'-bipyridyl group,arising from the silver colloid/ion complexation, and the rhenium center. The rhenium complexes show weak SERS bands related to the CO stretches and a broad band at 510 cm(-1) assigned to Re-CO stretching. Concentration dependent studies, measured by the relative intensity of several assigned peaks, indicate that, as the surface coverage increases, the bipyridine moiety lifts off the surface In the case of L1 and L2, this gives rise to complexes with silver at low concentration, enhancing the signals observed, while for the tricarbonylbromorhenium complexes of these ligands, the presence of the disulfide tether allows an enhancement in the limits of detection of these surface-borne species of 20 times in the case of [ReL2(CO)(3)Br] over [Re(bipy)(CO)(3)Br]

Asymmetric spin crossover behaviour and evidence of light-induced excited spin state trapping in a dinuclear iron(II) helicate

Reported herein are the synthesis, structural and magnetic characterisation of a dinuclear FeII triple helicate that displays an unprecedented reversible asymmetric high spin to low spin crossover characterised by a thermal hysteresis: indeed the high spin state can be recovered by white light irradiation at 10 K

Synthesis and coordination chemistry of doubly-tridentate tripodal pyridazine and pyrimidine-derived ligands: structural interplay between M2L and M2L2 (M=Ni and Pd) complexes and magnetic properties of iron(II) complexes

The coordination chemistry of three bridging doubly-tridentate ligands, including the known compound 3,6-bis(di-2-pyridylmethyl)pyridazine (1), which is structurally similar to 1,4-bis(di-2-pyridylmethyl)phthalazine (2), and two pyrimidine-linked compounds 4,6-bis(di-2-pyridylmethyl)pyrimidine (3), and 4,6-bis(di-2-pyridylamino)pyrimidine (4), was investigated with FeII, NiII, and PdII metal salts. Ligands 3 and 4 were synthesized in one-pot reactions from easily obtained starting materials; compound 3 was synthesized from di-2-pyridylmethane and 4,6-diiodopyrimidine in 48% yield, while ligand 4 was prepared by reacting di-2-pyridylamine with 4,6-dichloropyrimidine in 27% yield. During the synthesis of 4, an additional compound, 4-chloro-6-(di-2-pyridylamino)pyrimidine (5), with only one tridentate binding site was obtained in 30% yield. Reactions of 1, 3, and 4 with Fe II or NiII salts gave two types of complexes, either discrete M2L or M2L2 assemblies. The Pd II complexes obtained were also characterized as discrete M 2L complexes. The compounds were characterized by a combination of NMR and IR spectroscopy, microanalysis and X-ray crystallography. Noticeable differences in the structures obtained for NiII coordination complexes with the carbon-linked (3) and nitrogen-linked (4) ligands were observed, whereby the nitrogen linker adopted a trigonal planar geometry and prevented tridentate facial coordination of the octahedral metal centres. The magnetic properties of dinuclear FeII complexes of 1 were examined to see if they showed spin-crossover effects, a feature recently observed by others in other dinuclear helicate complexes, but the complexes remained high-spin at all temperatures between 300 and 2 K. © CSIRO 2009.Christopher J. Sumby, Ben A. Leita, Boujemaa Moubaraki, Keith S. Murray and Peter J. Stee