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State Key Laboratory of Structural Chemistry, Fujian Institute of Research on the Structure of Matter, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Fuzhou, Fujian 350002, China
E-mail: ccn@fjirsm.ac.cn
; Tel: (+86) 591-8379-2395
Dalton Trans., 2012,41, 11813-11819
DOI:
10.1039/C2DT31507F
Received
09 Jul 2012,
Accepted
02 Aug 2012
First published online
03 Aug 2012
A diiron dithiolate complex 1o with a dithienylethene (DTE) phosphine ligand has been elaborately designed and fully investigated by spectroscopic and DFT computational studies. Upon irradiation with UV light, the DTE moiety in complex 1o undergoes an excellent photocyclization reaction to attain ring-closed state 1c in high yield (>95%), accompanied by a colour change from orange to deep blue. On the other hand, upon irradiation with visible light (>460 nm), ring-closed form 1c in CH3CN solution reverts perfectly into ring-open form 1o. Both 1o and 1c were characterised by IR, 1H, 31P, 19F NMR and electrochemical spectroscopy. The electrochemical behaviours of both the open and closed forms were investigated by cyclic voltammetry. Upon photocyclization reaction, a 290 mV (from −2.29 V to −2.00 V) positive shift is induced in the potential of electrochemical catalytic proton reduction, due to the electron-withdrawing effect of the ring-closed DTE moiety. Consequently, complex 1 can reversibly photoswitch the potential of proton reduction on the [FeFe] moiety.
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