Structural Elucidation of Selective Solvatochromism in a Responsive-at-Metal Cyclometalated Platinum(II) Complex.

We report the synthesis, characterization, and spectroscopic investigations of a new responsive-at-metal cyclometalated platinum(II) complex. With mild chemical oxidants and reductants, it was possible to obtain the same complex in three different oxidation states and each of these complexes was structurally characterized by single-crystal X-ray diffraction. We discovered that the platinum(II) complex displays strong solvatochromism in the solid state, which can be attributed to modulation of Pt⋅⋅⋅Pt interactions that results in switching between optical and photoluminescent states. Incorporating responsive-at-metal species as dynamic components in nanostructured materials might facilitate response amplification, sensing, actuation, or self-healing processes.