Experimental and theoretical studies of pH-responsive iridium(iii) complexes of azole and N-heterocyclic carbene ligands

A series of nine luminescent iridium(iii) complexes with pH-responsive imidazole and benzimidazole ligands have been prepared and characterized. The first series of complexes were of the form [Ir(ppy)(2)(N<^>N)]+ or [Ir(ppy)(2)(C<^>N)]+ (where ppy is 2-phenylpyridine and N<^>N is 2-(2-pyridyl)imidazole or 2-(2-pyridyl)benzimidazole and C<^>N represents a pyridyl-triazolylidene-based N-heterocyclic carbene ligand). For these complexes, the benzimidazole group was either unsubstituted or substituted with electron-withdrawing (Cl) or electron-donating (Me) groups. The second series of complexes were of the form [Ir(phbim)(2)(N<^>N)]+ or [Ir(phbim)(2)(C<^>N)]+ (where phbim is 2-phenylbenzimidazole and N<^>N is either 2,2 '-bipyridine or 1,10-phenanthroline and C<^>N is either a pyridyl-imidazolylidene or pyridyl-triazolylidene N-heterocyclic carbene ligand). UV-visible and photoluminescence pH titration studies showed that changing the protonation state of these complexes results in significant changes in the photoluminescence emission properties. The pKa values of prepared complexes were estimated from the spectroscopic pH titration data and these values show that the nature of the pH-sensitive ligands (either main or ancillary ligands) resulted in a significant capacity to modulate the pKa values for these compounds with values ranging from 5.19-11.22. Theoretical investigations into the nature of the electronic transitions for the different protonation states of compounds were performed and the results were consistent with the experimental results.