Electronic structure and bonding analysis of transition metal sandwich and half-sandwich complexes of the triphenylene ligand

Abstract

Full geometry optimization using the BP86 and B3LYP methods has been carried out for all of the low-energy isomers of half-sandwich L3M(Tphn) (Tphn = triphenylene, M = Ti–Ni, and L3 = (CO)3, Cp–) and sandwich M(Tphn)2 (Tphn = triphenylene and M = Ti, Cr, Fe, Ni) structures. Depending on the electron richness of the molecule and the nature of the metal, a complete rationalization of the bonding in triphenylene complexes has been provided. The triphenylene adopts various hapticities from η2 to η6, some of them involving full or partial coordination of the C6 ring and shown to be quite flexible with respect to the ground spin state. The triphenylene behavior remains dependent on the electron-withdrawing and electron-donor properties of the (CO)3M and CpM fragments, respectively. For the sandwich complexes, both triphenylene ligands prefer to behave differently depending on the coordination mode to satisfy the metal electron demand.