Luminescent Three- and Four-Coordinate Dinuclear Copper(I) Complexes Triply Bridged by Bis(diphenylphosphino)methane and Functionalized 3-(2′-Pyridyl)-1,2,4-triazole Ligands

A new series of bimetallic Cu(I) complexes 1–5 triply bridged by a monoanionic or charge-neutral functionalized 3-(2′-pyridyl)-1,2,4-triazole in a μ–η1(N),η2(N,N) tridentate binding mode and two bis(diphenylphosphino)methane (dppm) ligands have been synthesized. Complexes 1–5 are singly or doubly charged dinuclear Cu(I) species with an eight-membered Cu2C2P4 ring of {Cu(μ-dppm)2Cu} unit, in which 3 and 4 adopt the boat–boat conformation, while 1, 2, and 5 display the chair–boat form. In these dimeric copper(I) complex cations, one of the two Cu(I) ions is four-coordinated, in a highly distorted N2P2 tetrahedral environment and the other is three-coordinated, in a distorted NP2 trigonal planar arrangement. All these Cu(I) complexes exhibit a comparatively weak low-energy absorption in CH2Cl2 solution, ascribed to the charge-transfer transitions with appreciable 1MLCT contribution, as suggested by time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT) analyses. Complexes 1–5 display good emission properties in bo...