A Comprehensive Investigation of Mercaptoazulenes & Their Complexes with Monovalent Gold

Abstract

Discussed herein are the syntheses and characterization of a family of azulenylthiolate gold(I) complexes, which show promise for applications in the fields of molecular electronics and luminescent chemosensing. The reactivities and the photoluminescent behavior of these systems were investigated via 1H NMR, electronic absorption, fluorescence, and phosphorescence spectroscopies. In addition, single-crystal X-ray crystallography was employed to reveal key structural features of several of the mercaptoazulene ligands and azulenylthiolate gold(I) complexes to provide insight into the origins of these species’ unique physicochemical properties. TD-DFT calculations were performed to aid in the interpretation of electronic absorption and photoluminescence spectra. Finally, although not central to advancing the knowledge of these systems, this thesis also provides a complete description of experimental pitfalls that one may need to avoid in attempting to synthesize and characterize such complexes.