Iridafluoranthenes: A New Class of Metalla-Analogues of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons

irida-polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons - metalla-analogues - fluoranthene-based molecules

The authors synthesized a series of novel iridafluoranthene derivatives as metalla-analogues of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). All the targets were obtained in high yields under mild conditions by a one-pot synthetic route. Examples of metalla-analogues of PAHs containing iridium are scarce; therefore, this work constitutes a significant step forward in the field of PAHs metalla-analogues. Furthermore, most effort has been focused on simple PAHs, such as benzene and naphthalene, while this work has focused on more complex PAHs.

Cyclic voltammetry was performed in dichloromethane to gain insight into the electronic properties of the synthesized complexes. The authors measured multi-electron redox processes for all complexes. However, only the first reduction process was reversible. The authors did not elaborate on this or on the redox properties of the complexes, which would have been of value within the scope of this work.