Theoretical study of the excited state lifetime by ligand modifications and the vibrational anharmonicity for Fe(II) and Ru(II) complexes

Identifier:  TDX:3385

Handle: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11797/TDX3385

Authors:  Wu, Jianfang

Abstract:
Transition metal (TM) complexes have become popular as functional and tuneable nanoscale materials and those with spin-crossover (SCO) properties are especially interesting for technological applications. This thesis describes some of the factors that govern the transition temperature for spin-crossover (T1/2) and the excited state relaxation for light-induced SCO. The first chapter focusses on the basic features of the electronic structure and describes in some detail the properties of the compounds studied. After describing the theoretical methods, Chapter 3 explores how the excited state lifetime can be controlled by modifying the ligands in [Fe(bpy)3]2+ and [Ru(bpy)3]2+. Using weaker sigma donors in the Fe complex, the lifetime of the excited state was predicted to be two order of magnitude larger than in the parent compound. In chapter 4, a new and in principle more accurate computational method has been tested for its capacity to predict the HS-LS adiabatic energy difference. This is a notoriously difficult property to calculate and despite much effort, we have not been able to present an alternative to the yet existing methods, which are suspected to give the right answer because of a cancellation of errors. The last research chapter describes to what extent T1/2 is affected by neglecting vibrational anharmonicity. It is generally assumed to be small but this has never been tested. Our outcomes show that anharmonicity does change the transition temperature, but the effect is small and it is argued that other effects that are not taken into account in the theoretical treatments are much bigger and should be resolved first.