Dithiolene complexes metal oxidation states

There are 35 Au dithiolene units with formal metal oxidation states mostly as Au(III) and some as Au(IV) . The complexes are often considered alongside isoelectronic Pt bis(dithiolene) examples. Coordination geometries for all the Au structures are square planar as is the case for the Auidmit) 1 example shown in Fig. 8. Average Au—S bond distances range from 2.263-2.344 A (Fig. 5) and the longest Au—S bonds are observed with the dithiosquarate ligand (Table IIC, Entry 52). 

Although only rarely luminescent in ambient fluid solutions, square-planar transition metal bis(dithiolene) complexes do display significant and varied photochemical reactivity. Much of the photoreactivity described above for dianionic bis(dithiolene) complexes involves excited-state oxidation and often leads to radical formation. In addition, the excited states of these complexes are receiving attention for their potential as materials for optical (15), nonlinear optical (10-13), and electrooptical (16) devices. The relevance of this work to those applications is addressed in other parts of chapter 8 in this volume (87b). 

Several reviews presenting various aspects of dithiolene chemistry have appeared over the years,1015-1026 so that this summary will only focus on some selected findings. Also, the photodissociations of Ni dithiolene complexes, which lead to long-lived Ni complex radicals, have been reviewed.1027 Since many studies in the field of Ni-dithiolene chemistry deal with different oxidation states of the metal, this chapter will also cover much work related to Ni111 and NiIv. 

One of the earliest series of metal complexes which showed strong, redox-dependent near-IR absorptions is the well-known set of square-planar bis-dithiolene complexes of Ni, Pd, and Pt (Scheme 4). Extensive delocalization between metal and ligand orbitals in these non-innocent systems means that assignment of oxidation states is problematic, but does result in intense electronic transitions. These complexes have two reversible redox processes connecting the neutral, monoanionic, and dianionic species. 

In fact, one of the peculiar properties of the title class of compounds is the ability of the molecular entity to carry a charge which can vary considerably, also assuming fractional values in non-integral oxidation state (NIOS) salts. The different molecular oxidation states are reversibly accessible by chemical or electrochemical means. A good example is the case of fe(l,2-dithiolene) complexes of ds metal ions [such as Ni(II), Pd(II), Pt(II), Au(III)], whose charge can assume values typically ranging between —2 and 0 (see Scheme 4). 

Chapter 2- Transition metal dithiolenes are versatile complexes eapable of a wide range of oxidation states, coordination geometries, and magnetie moments. As a eonsequence, these complexes have been widely studied as building bloeks for erystalline molecttlar materials. Particularly successful are the square-planar metal dithiolenes (Chart 1), from which materials have been produeed that exhibit condueting, magnetic, and nonlinear optieal properties, as well as supereonduetivity in some cases. " In their application to molecular- based... 

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