Ruthenium bistridentate complexes with non-symmetrical hexahydro-pyrimidopyrimidine ligands: a structural and theoretical investigation of their optical and electrochemical properties

Abstract

Six ruthenium complexes were synthesized based on three non-symmetrical tridentate ligands bearing the strongly electron-donating group 1,3,4,6,7,8-hexahydro-2H-pyrimido[1,2-α]pyrimidine (hpp), bpyG (bpyG = 2,2′-bipyridyl-6-hpp), phenG (phenG = 2-hpp-1,10-phenanthroline) and QpyG (QpyG = 2-hpp-6-quinolylpyridyl). The fac-/mer-conformation of the homoleptic species has a dramatic effect on the optical properties, where the fac-isomer absorption is red-shifted by 150 nm, thus reaching the near-IR at approximately 850 nm. Owing to the interesting structural effect on the optical properties, density functional theory (DFT) and time-dependent DFT calculations have been implemented to enlighten the experimental data and prove that exciton coupling is at the origin of the observed shift. The electronic properties have been investigated and, as corroborated by electrochemical data, the presence of the hpp ligand strongly affects the oxidation potential of the ruthenium metal ion, which allows facile fine-tuning of the electronic properties. The luminescence properties of all the compounds have also been investigated (λ_max emission = 781–817 nm) and the complexes have longer excited-state lifetimes at room temperature than the parent bis(2,2′:6′,2′′-terpyridine)ruthenium(II) by 10 to 30 times.