Unusually Strong Long-range Electronic Coupling Across Redox-Active Bridges in M3+/M4+ Mixed-Valence Complexes of Group 4 Congeners

Homobimetallic complexes of Group 4 metals, supported by the redox-active tetrakis(imino)pyracene (TIP) ligand were synthesized and isolated. The formation of these complexes resulted in LUMOs having significantly lower energies than the free ligand and the respective metal salts, MCl4 (M = Ti, Zr, Hf), whereby all three complexes were readily reduced by one electron using the mild reductant, Cp*2Fe (E0 = -0.59 V). Spectroscopic characterization and quantum chemical analyses of the reduced species revealed that the resulting complexes are delocalized, borderline Class II-III (Ti) and Class III (Zr, Hf) mixed valence complexes. All three complexes display surprisingly strong long-range electronic coupling between the metal centers, as M to M distances, rAB, are nearly 12 Å. The coupling strengths of Zr and Hf were significantly stronger than those observed for the Ti complex, suggesting that better orbital overlap between the ligand and 4d or 5d metal centers helps to relieve the instability of the 3+ oxidation state via delocalization.