Comprehensive Investigation of the Photophysical Properties of Alkynylcoumarin Gold(I) Complexes.

Six gold(I) complexes (R3P-Au-Coum) containing three different alkynylcoumarin chromophores (Coum) with different electron-donating and electron-withdrawing characteristics and two different water-soluble phosphanes (PR3 = PTA (a) and DAPTA (b)) have been synthesized (1a,b, unsubstituted coumarin; 2a,b, 4-methyl substituted coumarin; 3a,b, 3-chloro and 4-methyl substituted coumarin). A comprehensive study of the photophysical properties of the R3P-Au-Coum, together with their propynyloxycoumarin precursors 1-3, was performed in solution at room and low temperatures. Spectral and photophysical characteristics of the R3P-Au-Coum essentially depend on the electronic characteristics of the propynyloxycoumarin ligand. The presence of the Au(I) atom was found to be responsible for an increase of the intersystem crossing, with triplet state quantum yield values, ϕT, ranging from ∼0.05 to 0.35 and high coumarin phosphorescence quantum yield values for derivatives 1 and 2; fluorescence dominates the deactivation in derivatives 3. Efficient singlet oxygen photosensitization was observed for the new compounds 3a,b. From TDDFT calculations, the relevant HOMO and LUMO of the compounds, i.e., those involved in the transitions, are dominated by the frontier orbitals associated with the coumarin core. The Au(I)-phosphane structure introduces a new transition assigned to an intraligand transition involving the phosphane ligand, and π(C≡C) system, to the p orbitals of phosphorus and gold atoms.