News & Events

Stimuli-Responsive Flexible Lewis Pair Systems: From Metal Complexes To Materials

Date: 
Wednesday, December 11, 2019 - 17:00 to 18:00
Speaker: 
Nicole Arsenault
Affiliation: 
Department of Chemistry, University of British Columbia
Event Category: 
IDG - Inorganic Discussion Group
Host: 
Michael Wolf
Location: 
Chemistry D300

Abstract:

This talk will introduce a stimuli-responsive system incorporating a Lewis acidic dimesitylboron and Lewis basic phosphine oxide pair which is in equilibrium between the closed Lewis adduct and unbound open state.1 By using a hydrogen bond-donating solvent as an external stimulus, the system undergoes a conformational change from a closed (Lewis adduct) state to an open (unbound Lewis pair) state attributed to hydrogen bonding with the surrounding solvent.

This talk will describe the synthetic route to symmetrically- and nonsymmetrically-functionalized flexible Lewis pairs by incorporating alkyne functional groups onto either end of the bithiophene backbone.2 Functionalization of flexible Lewis pair systems with platinum metal complexes will be described, and the photophysical characteristics discussed. Additionally, this talk will describe the emerging applications of flexible Lewis pair systems as potential stimuli-responsive dyes for fluorescence microscopy and fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy. By incorporating emissive flexible Lewis pairs onto amine-functionalized nanoparticles through a succinimidyl ester functional group, emissive mesoporous nanoparticles that exhibit stimuli-responsive tunable emission colour and emission lifetimes can be made.

 

  1. Cao, Y.; Nagle, J. K.; Wolf, M. O.; Patrick, B. O. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2015, 137, 4888–4891.
  2. Arsenault, N. E.; Xu, Z.; Wolf, M.O. Inorg. Chem. 2018, 58, 65-68.