Self-Assembled Tetrahedral [CrIII4L6]12+ Cage Displaying Near-Infrared Spin-Flip Photoluminescence

Inorg Chem. 2024 Dec 16;63(50):23886-23893. doi: 10.1021/acs.inorgchem.4c04180. Epub 2024 Nov 28.

Abstract

The thermodynamically controlled self-assembly of bis-bidentate quaterpyridine ligand, L = 2,2':5',5″:2″,2‴-quaterpyridine, with CrII and subsequent oxidation to CrIII yields the first photoluminescent tetrahedral [CrIII4L6]12+ molecular cage. Single-crystal X-ray diffraction reveals the presence of two homochiral cages (ΛΛΛΛ and ΔΔΔΔ) in the unit cell that crystallize as a racemic mixture. Additionally, a PF6 anion is observed inside the cavity, in line with isostructural cages built with NiII or FeII. Each corner of the polyhedron is occupied by weakly antiferromagnetically coupled {Cr(bipy)3}3+ (bipy = 2,2'-bipyridine) patterns, as revealed by magnetometry. Upon light excitation in the UV-vis region, spin-flip luminescence from the 2E/2T1 excited states with a maximum at 727 nm (13755 cm-1) was detected at room temperature. The measured excited state lifetime of 183 μs is longer than the 102 μs recorded for the mononuclear [Cr(bipy)3]3+ complex under anaerobic conditions, whereas the luminescence quantum yields are in the same order of magnitude and amount to 10-2 %. The photoluminescence brightness, B, calculated using the maxima of the absorption spectra for both species, goes from 14 M-1·cm-1 for the mononuclear compound to 90 M-1·cm-1 for the tetrahedral cage. This 6-fold improvement is observed across the entire excitation wavelength range, and it is due to the incorporation of four light-harvester units in the molecular cage.