Luminescent Iridium(III) Complexes Supported by N-Heterocyclic Carbene-based C^C^C-Pincer Ligands and Aromatic Diimines

Iridium(III) hydrido complexes containing N-heterocyclic carbene (NHC)-based pincer ligand 1,3-bis(1-butylimidazolin-2-ylidene)phenyl anion (C(1)^C^C(1)) or 1,3-bis(3-butylbenzimidazolin-2-ylidene)phenyl anion (C(2)^C^C(2)) and aromatic diimine (2,2'-bipyridine (bpy), 1,10-phenanthroline (phen), 4,4'-dimethyl-2,2'-bipyridine (Me2bpy), or dipyrido-[3,2-f:2',3'-h]-quinoxaline (dpq)) in the form of [Ir(C^C^C)(N^N)(H)](+) have been prepared. Crystal structures for these complexes show that the Ir-CNHC distances are 2.043(5)-2.056(5) Å. The hydride chemical shifts for complexes bearing C(1)^C^C(1) (-20.6 to -20.3 ppm) are more upfield than those with C(2)^C^C(2) (-19.5 and -19.2 ppm), revealing that C(1)^C^C(1) is a better electron donor than C(2)^C^C(2). Spectroscopic comparisons and time-dependent density functional theory (TD-DFT) calculations suggest that the lowest-energy electronic transition associated with these complexes (λ = 340-530 nm (ε ≤ 10(3) dm(3) mol(-1) cm(-1))) originate from a dπ(Ir(III)) → π*(N^N) metal-to-ligand charge transfer transition, where the dπ(Ir(III)) level contain significant contribution from the C^C^C ligands. All these complexes are emissive in the yellow-spectral region (553-604 nm in CH3CN and CH2Cl2) upon photo-excitation with quantum yields of 10(-3)-10(-1).