Cyanomethylene-bis(phosphonate)-Based Lanthanide Complexes: Structural, Photophysical, and Magnetic Investigations

10 pagesInternational audienceThe syntheses, structural investigations, magnetic and photophysical properties of a series of 10 lanthanide mononuclear complexes, containing the heteroditopic ligand cyanomethylene-bis(5,5-dimethyl-2-oxo-1,3,2λ5-dioxa-phosphorinane) (L), are described. The crystallographic analyses indicate two structural types: in the first one, [LnIII(L)3(H2O)2]*H2O (Ln = La, Pr, Nd), the metal ions are eight-coordinated within a square antiprism geometry, while the second one, [LnIII(L)3(H2O)]*8H2O (Ln = Sm, Eu, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er), contains seven-coordinated LnIII ions within distorted monocapped trigonal prisms...

On Predicting Mössbauer Parameters of Iron-Containing Molecules with Density-Functional Theory

The performance of six frequently used density functional theory (DFT) methods (RPBE, OLYP, TPSS, B3LYP, B3LYP*, and TPSSh) in the prediction of Mössbauer isomer shifts(δ) and quadrupole splittings (ΔEQ) is studied for an extended and diverse set of Fe complexes. In addition to the influence of the applied density functional and the type of the basis set, the effect of the environment of the molecule, approximated with the conducting-like screening solvation model (COSMO) on the computed Mössbauer parameters, is also investigated. For the isomer shifts the COSMO-B3LYP method is found to provide accurate δ values for all 66 investigated complexes, with a mean absolute error (MAE) of 0.05 mm s–1 and a maximum deviation of 0.12 mm s–1. Obtaining accurate ΔEQ values presents a bigger challenge; however, with the selection of an appropriate DFT method, a reasonable agreement can be achieved between experiment and theory. Identifying the various chemical classes of compounds that need different treatment allowed us to construct a recipe for ΔEQ calculations; the application of this approach yields a MAE of 0.12 mm s–1 (7% error) and a maximum deviation of 0.55 mm s–1 (17% error). This accuracy should be sufficient for most chemical problems that concern Fe complexes. Furthermore, the reliability of the DFT approach is verified by extending the investigation to chemically relevant case studies which include geometric isomerism, phase transitions induced by variations of the electronic structure (e.g., spin crossover and inversion of the orbital ground state), and the description of electronically degenerate triplet and quintet states. Finally, the immense and often unexploited potential of utilizing the sign of the ΔEQ in characterizing distortions or in identifying the appropriate electronic state at the assignment of the spectral lines is also shown

Iron Nitrosyl “Natural” Porphyrinates: Does the Porphyrin Matter?

The synthesis and spectroscopic characterization of three five-coordinate nitrosyliron­(II) complexes, [Fe­(Porph)­(NO)], are reported. These three nitrosyl derivatives, where Porph represents protoporphyrin IX dimethyl ester, mesoporphyrin IX dimethyl ester, or deuteroporphyrin IX dimethyl ester, display notable differences in their properties relative to the symmetrical synthetic porphyrins such as OEP and TPP. The N–O stretching frequencies are in the range of 1651–1660 cm^–1, frequencies that are lower than those of synthetic porphyrin derivatives. Mössbauer spectra obtained in both zero and applied magnetic field show that the quadrupole splitting values are slightly larger than those of known synthetic porphyrins. The electronic structures of these naturally occurring porphyrin derivatives are thus seen to be consistently different from those of the synthetic derivatives, the presumed consequence of the asymmetric peripheral substituent pattern. The molecular structure of [Fe­(PPIX-DME)­(NO)] has been determined by X-ray crystallography. Although disorder of the axial nitrosyl ligand limits the structural quality, this derivative appears to show the same subtle structural features as previously characterized five-coordinate nitrosyls