A new heteroleptic phosphorescent cuprous complex supported by a BINAP ligand: synthesis, structure, luminescence properties and theoretical analyses.

Luminescent cuprous complexes are an important class of coordination compounds due to their relative abundance, low cost and ability to display excellent luminescence. The heteroleptic cuprous complex solvate rac-(acetonitrile-κN)(3-aminopyridine-κN)[2,2'-bis(diphenylphosphanyl)-1,1'-binaphthyl-κP,P']copper(I) hexafluoridophosphate dichloromethane monosolvate, [Cu(CHN)(CHN)(CHP)]PF·CHCl, conventionally abbreviated as [Cu(3-PyNH)(CHCN)(BINAP)]PF·CHCl, (I), where BINAP and 3-PyNH represent 2,2'-bis(diphenylphosphanyl)-1,1'-binaphthyl and 3-aminopyridine, respectively, is described. In this complex solvate, the asymmetric unit consists of a cocrystallized dichloromethane molecule, a hexafluoridophosphate anion and a complete racemic heteroleptic cuprous complex cation in which the cuprous centre, in a tetrahedral CuPN coordination, is coordinated by two P atoms from the BINAP ligand, one N atom from the 3-PyNH ligand and another N atom from a coordinated acetonitrile molecule. The UV-Vis absorption and photoluminescence properties of this heteroleptic cuprous complex have been studied on polycrystalline powder samples, which had been verified by powder X-ray diffraction before recording the spectra. Time-dependent density functional theory (TD-DFT) calculations and a wavefunction analysis reveal that the orange-yellow phosphorescence emission should originate from intra-ligand (BINAP) charge transfer mixed with a little of the metal-to-ligand charge transfer (IL+ML)CT excited state.