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Inorganic photochemistry

Something new under the sun

Nature Chemistry volume 15, pages 446–447 (2023)Cite this article

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Charge-transfer emission of any type is extremely rare for coordination complexes of iron. Now, an Fe(iii) complex has been devised that shows two-colour luminescence arising from dual metal-to-ligand and ligand-to-metal charge-transfer emission.

While coordination complexes of transition metals can emit light from many different kinds of electronically excited states, metal-to-ligand charge-transfer (MLCT) excited states represent some of the best studied and most widely applied1. To a first approximation, MLCT is characterized by redistribution of electron density from a metal-based orbital to a ligand-localized one, producing a transient hole (positive charge) at the metal and a ligand-centred radical anion. The opposite situation — relocation of electron density from a ligand-like orbital to a metal-based one — characterizes ligand-to-metal charge transfer (LMCT). Despite decades of effort, only a tiny handful of iron coordination complexes have ever been reported to produce reasonably observable luminescence from MLCT2 or LMCT3 excited states. Writing in Nature Chemistry, Matthias Bauer and co-workers describe the first example of an iron coordination complex that exhibits ‘dual emission’ — that is, luminescence both from an excited state with LMCT character and from one with MLCT character4.

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Fig. 1: The two emissive states of [Fe(ImP)2]+.

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  1. Department of Chemistry and the Manitoba Institute for Materials, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

    Robert J. Ortiz & David E. Herbert

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  1. Robert J. Ortiz
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Ortiz, R.J., Herbert, D.E. Something new under the sun. Nat. Chem. 15, 446–447 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41557-023-01169-2

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