Integration of alkyl-substituted bipyridyl benzenedithiolato platinum(II) complexes with cadmium(II) ion via selective dative bond formation.

The presence of lone pairs on the Pt and S atoms of [Pt(Bdt)(DTBbpy)] (1) (Bdt = 1,2-benzenedithiolato and DTBbpy = 4,4'-di-tert-butyl-2,2'-bipyridine) and [Pt(Bdt)(C13bpy)] (2) (C13bpy = 4,4'-ditridecyl-2,2'-bipyridine) led to selective dative bond formation with Cd(II). Complexes 1 and 2 show no binding interaction with Zn(II), while they bind selectively with Cd(II) to give a twisted trinuclear complex, [Cd{Pt(Bdt)(DTBbpy)}2(ClO4)(H2O)](ClO4) (3), and a shuttlecock-shaped tetranuclear complex, [Cd{Pt(Bdt)(C13bpy)}3(H2O)](ClO4)2·CH2Cl2 (4), respectively, depending upon the alkyl groups substituted on the 2,2'-bipyridine. The two platinum moieties in 3 are connected to the seven-coordinated Cd atom through Pt → Cd (2.7331(7) and 2.7936(7) Å) and S → Cd (2.690(3), 2.940(3), and 3.067(3) Å) dative bonds, while the three moieties in 4 are connected to the tetrahedral Cd atom only by S → Cd (2.552(4) Å) dative bonds. These structural variations found in 3 and 4 are caused not only by steric hindrance of the t-Bu groups but also by the microsegregation effect derived from the tridecyl chains. The three platinum moieties in 4 align so as to form a parallel orientation of their dipole moments, in contrast to the twisted arrangement found in 3. The dative bonds formed in 3 and 4 are commonly stable in the solid state and in less coordinative solvents such as dichloromethane, while dissociation behavior of platinum moieties with Cd(II) was observed in more coordinative THF. UV-vis and NMR spectroscopy unsealed the characteristic association/dissociation properties depending on the coordination abilities of solvents. Finally, the present study revealed that the formation of dative bonds between the platinum moieties with Cd(II) plays important roles not only in stabilizing the ground states, which leads to blue shifts in both absorption and emission energies, but also in electronic interactions between the moieties, which are revealed by electrochemical studies.