Cyclopalladated complexes of perylene imine: mononuclear complexes with five- or six-membered metallacycles

Mononuclear palladium complexes [Pd(C^N)L(2)] (HC^N = 3-C(20)H(11)CH=NC(6)H(4)-p-C(2)H(5)) have been prepared with Pd bound to the peri site or to the ortho site of the perylenyl fragment. These metallations correspond, respectively to six-membered (L(2) = S(2)COMe (3); acac (4); Cl, PMe(3) (5); Cl, PPh(3) (6); S(2)CNEt(2) (7)) or five-membered (L(2) = S(2)COMe (8); acac (9)) isomeric palladacyclic compounds. The X-ray structures of 3, 5, 7 and 8 show that the perylenyl fragment remains essentially flat for 3, 7 and 8 and twisted for 5. Intermolecular π-π stacking of perylenyl rings is observed only for 7. All palladium complexes exhibit fluorescence associated to the perylene fragments, with emission quantum yields (in solution at room temperature) in the range 0.01-0.12 (compared to 0.13 for the free imine), and emission lifetimes ∼ 1 ns. The complexes with five-membered palladacycles show lower quantum yields than their six-membered analogs. The similarity in shape of the luminescence spectra of these metallated complexes with perylene, although red-shifted, strongly suggests a perylene-dominated intraligand π-π* emissive state, metal-perturbed by interaction of the perylene orbitals with the palladium fragment.