Tuning the photophysical properties of amidophosphine complexes of copper

Abstract

A series of monomeric copper complexes that allow for the tuning of the emission properties is reported. Luminescence lifetimes up to 150 [mu]s are observed in benzene solution at ambient temperature, which are comparable to the lifetimes of the longest-lived previously reported copper luminophores. These complexes also exhibit quantum yields up to 0 = 0.70 at 298 K. The results of time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT) calculations indicate emission from a triplet state in all cases. The calculations also successfully correlate the energy of the transition from this triplet state to the energy of the observed emission. Such luminescence from a first-row metal is highly unusual, especially when considering the phosphine-based ligand framework used.