Photochemical and photophysical properties of gold(I) complexes and phosphorescence sensitization of organic luminophores

Two major topics that involve synthetic strategies to enhance the phosphorescence of organic and inorganic luminophores have been investigated. The first topic involves, the photophysical and photochemical properties of the gold (I) complexes LAuIX (L = CO, RNC where R = alkyl or aryl group; X = halide or pseudohalide), which have been investigated and found to exhibit Au-centered phosphorescence and tunable photochemical reactivity. The investigations have shown a clear relationship between the luminescence energies and association modes. We have also demonstrated for the first time that aurophilic bonding and the ligand pi-acceptance can sensitize the photoreactivity of Au(I) complexes.; The second topic involves conventional organic fluorophores (arenes), which are made to exhibit room-temperature phosphorescence that originates from spin-orbit coupling owing to either an external or internal heavy atom effect in systematically designed systems that contain d10 metals. Facial complexation of polycyclic arenes to tris[{lcub}mu-(3,4,5,6-tetrafluorophenylene){rcub}mercury(II)], C18F12Hg3 (1) results in crystalline adducts that exhibit bright RGB (red-green-blue) phosphorescence bands at room temperature. This arene-centered phosphorescence is always accompanied by a reduction of the triplet excited state lifetime due to its sensitization by accelerating the radiative instead of the non-radiative decay. The results of both topics are significant for rational design of efficient metal and arene-centered phosphors for molecular light emitting diodes in addition to the fundamental novelties in inorganic chemistry and molecular spectroscopy.