Theoretical studies upon the electronic structures and spectroscopic properties for a series of luminescent terpyridyl platinum(II) phenylacetylide complexes

A comprehensive calculations were carried out to get a deep insight into the ground- and excited-state electronic structures and the spectroscopic properties for a series of [Pt(4-X–trpy)CCC₆H₄R]⁺ complexes (trpy = 2,2′,6′,2″-terpyridine; X = H, R = NO₂ (1), Cl (2), C₆H₅ (3) and CH₃ (4); R = Cl, X = CH₃ (5) and C₆H₅ (6)). MP2 (second-order Møller–Plesset perturbation) and CIS (single-excitation configuration interaction) methods were employed to optimize the structures of 1–6 in the ground and excited states, respectively. The investigation showed that substituted phenylacetylide and trpy ligands only give rise to a small variation in geometrical structures but lead to a sizable difference in the electronic structures for 1–6 in the ground and excited states. The introduction of electron-rich groups into the phenylacetylide and/or terpyridyl ligands produces two different low-lying absorptions for 1 and 2–6, i.e., Pt(5d) → π^*(trpy) metal-to-ligand charge transfer (MLCT) mixed with π → π^*(CCPh) intraligand charge transfer (ILCT) for 1 and Pt(5d)/π(CCPh) → π^*(trpy) charge transfer (MLCT and LLCT) for 2–6. Remarkable electronic resonance on the whole Pt–CCPh–NO₂ moiety for 1 may be responsible for the difference. Solvatochromism calculation revealed that only LLCT/MLCT transitions showed the solvent dependence, consistent with the experimental observations.