Resolving Femtosecond Solvent Reorganization Dynamics in an Iron Complex by Nonadiabatic Dynamics Simulations.

The ultrafast dynamical response of solute-solvent interactions plays a key role in transition metal complexes, where charge transfer states are ubiquitous. Nonetheless, there exist very few excited-state simulations of transition metal complexes in solution. Here, we carry out a nonadiabatic dynamics study of the iron complex [Fe(CN)4(bpy)]2- (bpy = 2,2'-bipyridine) in explicit aqueous solution. Implicit solvation models were found inadequate for reproducing the strong solvatochromism in the absorption spectra. Instead, direct solute-solvent interactions, in the form of hydrogen bonds, are responsible for the large observed solvatochromic shift and the general dynamical behavior of the complex in water. The simulations reveal an overall intersystem crossing time scale of 0.21 ± 0.01 ps and a strong reliance of this process on nuclear motion. A charge transfer character analysis shows a branched decay mechanism from the initially excited singlet metal-to-ligand charge transfer (1MLCT) states to triplet states of 3MLCT and metal-centered (3MC) character. We also find that solvent reorganization after excitation is ultrafast, on the order of 50 fs around the cyanides and slower around the bpy ligand. In contrast, the nuclear vibrational dynamics, in the form of Fe-ligand bond changes, takes place on slightly longer time scales. We demonstrate that the surprisingly fast solvent reorganizing should be observable in time-resolved X-ray solution scattering experiments, as simulated signals show strong contributions from the solute-solvent scattering cross term. Altogether, the simulations paint a comprehensive picture of the coupled and concurrent electronic, nuclear, and solvent dynamics and interactions in the first hundreds of femtoseconds after excitation.

Hot Branching Dynamics in a Light-Harvesting Iron Carbene Complex Revealed by Ultrafast X-ray Emission Spectroscopy.

Iron N-heterocyclic carbene (NHC) complexes have received a great deal of attention recently because of their growing potential as light sensitizers or photocatalysts. We present a sub-ps X-ray spectroscopy study of an FeII NHC complex that identifies and quantifies the states involved in the deactivation cascade after light absorption. Excited molecules relax back to the ground state along two pathways: After population of a hot 3 MLCT state, from the initially excited 1 MLCT state, 30 % of the molecules undergo ultrafast (150 fs) relaxation to the 3 MC state, in competition with vibrational relaxation and cooling to the relaxed 3 MLCT state. The relaxed 3 MLCT state then decays much more slowly (7.6 ps) to the 3 MC state. The 3 MC state is rapidly (2.2 ps) deactivated to the ground state. The 5 MC state is not involved in the deactivation pathway. The ultrafast partial deactivation of the 3 MLCT state constitutes a loss channel from the point of view of photochemical efficiency and highlights the necessity to screen transition-metal complexes for similar ultrafast decays to optimize photochemical performance.

Tracking the picosecond deactivation dynamics of a photoexcited iron carbene complex by time-resolved X-ray scattering.

Recent years have seen the development of new iron-centered N-heterocyclic carbene (NHC) complexes for solar energy applications. Compared to typical ligand systems, the NHC ligands provide Fe complexes with longer-lived metal-to-ligand charge transfer (MLCT) states. This increased lifetime is ascribed to strong ligand field splitting provided by the NHC ligands that raises the energy levels of the metal centered (MC) states and therefore reduces the deactivation efficiency of MLCT states. Among currently known NHC systems, [Fe(btbip)2]2+ (btbip = 2,6-bis(3-tert-butyl-imidazol-1-ylidene)pyridine) is a unique complex as it exhibits a short-lived MC state with a lifetime on the scale of a few hundreds of picoseconds. Hence, this complex allows for a detailed investigation, using 100 ps X-ray pulses from a synchrotron, of strong ligand field effects on the intermediate MC state in an NHC complex. Here, we use time-resolved wide angle X-ray scattering (TRWAXS) aided by density functional theory (DFT) to investigate the molecular structure, energetics and lifetime of the high-energy MC state in the Fe-NHC complex [Fe(btbip)2]2+ after excitation to the MLCT manifold. We identify it as a 260 ps metal-centered quintet (5MC) state, and we refine the molecular structure of the excited-state complex verifying the DFT results. Using information about the hydrodynamic state of the solvent, we also determine, for the first time, the energy of the 5MC state as 0.75 ± 0.15 eV. Our results demonstrate that due to the increased ligand field strength caused by NHC ligands, upon transition from the ground state to the 5MC state, the metal to ligand bonds extend by unusually large values: by 0.29 Å in the axial and 0.21 Å in the equatorial direction. These results imply that the transition in the photochemical properties from typical Fe complexes to novel NHC compounds is manifested not only in the destabilization of the MC states, but also in structural distortion of these states.

Manipulating charge transfer excited state relaxation and spin crossover in iron coordination complexes with ligand substitution.

Developing light-harvesting and photocatalytic molecules made with iron could provide a cost effective, scalable, and environmentally benign path for solar energy conversion. To date these developments have been limited by the sub-picosecond metal-to-ligand charge transfer (MLCT) electronic excited state lifetime of iron based complexes due to spin crossover - the extremely fast intersystem crossing and internal conversion to high spin metal-centered excited states. We revitalize a 30 year old synthetic strategy for extending the MLCT excited state lifetimes of iron complexes by making mixed ligand iron complexes with four cyanide (CN-) ligands and one 2,2'-bipyridine (bpy) ligand. This enables MLCT excited state and metal-centered excited state energies to be manipulated with partial independence and provides a path to suppressing spin crossover. We have combined X-ray Free-Electron Laser (XFEL) Kß hard X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy with femtosecond time-resolved UV-visible absorption spectroscopy to characterize the electronic excited state dynamics initiated by MLCT excitation of [Fe(CN)4(bpy)]2-. The two experimental techniques are highly complementary; the time-resolved UV-visible measurement probes allowed electronic transitions between valence states making it sensitive to ligand-centered electronic states such as MLCT states, whereas the Kß fluorescence spectroscopy provides a sensitive measure of changes in the Fe spin state characteristic of metal-centered excited states. We conclude that the MLCT excited state of [Fe(CN)4(bpy)]2- decays with roughly a 20 ps lifetime without undergoing spin crossover, exceeding the MLCT excited state lifetime of [Fe(2,2'-bipyridine)3]2+ by more than two orders of magnitude.

Tracking excited-state charge and spin dynamics in iron coordination complexes.

Crucial to many light-driven processes in transition metal complexes is the absorption and dissipation of energy by 3d electrons. But a detailed understanding of such non-equilibrium excited-state dynamics and their interplay with structural changes is challenging: a multitude of excited states and possible transitions result in phenomena too complex to unravel when faced with the indirect sensitivity of optical spectroscopy to spin dynamics and the flux limitations of ultrafast X-ray sources. Such a situation exists for archetypal polypyridyl iron complexes, such as [Fe(2,2'-bipyridine)3](2+), where the excited-state charge and spin dynamics involved in the transition from a low- to a high-spin state (spin crossover) have long been a source of interest and controversy. Here we demonstrate that femtosecond resolution X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy, with its sensitivity to spin state, can elucidate the spin crossover dynamics of [Fe(2,2'-bipyridine)3](2+) on photoinduced metal-to-ligand charge transfer excitation. We are able to track the charge and spin dynamics, and establish the critical role of intermediate spin states in the crossover mechanism. We anticipate that these capabilities will make our method a valuable tool for mapping in unprecedented detail the fundamental electronic excited-state dynamics that underpin many useful light-triggered molecular phenomena involving 3d transition metal complexes.