Interpreting the different emissive properties of cyclic triimidazole-based CuI and AgI coordination polymers: a QTAIM and IQA study

Abstract

A QTAIM and IQA investigation on model compounds of two isostructural AgI and CuI coordination polymers (CPs) based on cyclic triimidazole (L), i.e. the [MIL] n 1D double-stranded stair chain and the [MClL] n 3D network (M = Cu, Ag), has allowed light to be shed on the different emissive behaviour associated with the two metal ions. According to a previously reported investigation [Malpicci et al. (2021). Inorg. Chem. Front. 8, 1312–1323], AgI CPs showed both fluorescence and multiple ligand-centred room-temperature phosphorescences, whereas CuI CPs displayed non-thermally equilibrated halogen and metal-to-ligand charge transfer and two ligand-centred phosphorescences, the latter observed only by their selective activation. Analysis of both local and integral QTAIM descriptors, including delocalization indices and source function, of the Ag—N and Cu—N bonds reveals a higher covalent and local character for the latter, explaining the greater metal–ligand electronic communication observed for the Cu compounds. Moreover, IQA investigation shows that the Cu—N bond is characterized by higher interaction energy, due to both higher electrostatic and exchange-correlation contributions. Analysis on the M—X (M = Ag, Cu; X = I, Cl) bonds, also present in these structures, highlights a much higher covalent and local character with respect to the M—N bonds.