Highly luminescent tridentate N^C*N platinum(II) complexes featured in fused five-six-membered metallacycle and diminishing concentration quenching.

A series of cyclometalating ligands, N-phenyl-N-(3-(pyridin-2-yl)phenyl)pyridin-2-amine (L1), N-(3-(1H-pyrazol-1-yl)phenyl)-N-phenylpyridin-2-amine (L2), N-phenyl-N-(3-(quinolin-2-yl)phenyl)pyridin-2-amine (L3), N-phenyl-N-(3-(pyridin-2-yl)phenyl)quinolin-2-amine (L4), N-(3-(isoquinolin-1-yl)phenyl)-N-phenylpyridin-2-amine (L5), and N-phenyl-N-(3-(pyridin-2-yl)phenyl)isoquinolin-1-amine (L6), were synthesized, which reacted with K(2)PtCl(4) in glacial acetic acid to produce N^C*N-coordinated platinum(II) complexes featured in a fused five-six-membered metallacycle, 1-6, respectively. The structures of 1, 3, 4, and 6 were determined by single crystal X-ray crystallography. The square geometries of the complexes are improved when compared with those of the N^C^N-coordinated complexes as the bite angles for the platinum in N^C*N-coordinated complexes 1, 3, and 4 are increased.

Solvent-controlled switch of selectivity between sp2 and sp3 C-H bond activation by platinum(II).

By merely changing the solvent, two different cyclometalated platinum complexes resulted from either sp(2) or sp(3) C-H bond activation can be prepared selectively. For example, the reaction of L1 with K(2)PtCl(4) in MeCN gave exclusively kinetic product 1a, while the reaction in AcOH was thermodynamically controlled and produced predominantly 1b.