Direct Evidence of Visible Light-Induced Homolysis (VLIH) in Chlorobis(2,9-dimethyl-1,10-phenanthroline)copper(II).

Developments in the field of photoredox catalysis that leveraged the long-lived excited states of Ir(III) and Ru(II) photosensitizers to enable radical coupling processes, paved the way for explorations of synthetic transformations that would otherwise remain unrealized. While first row transition metal photocatalysts have not been as extensively investigated, valuable synthetic transformations covering broad scopes of olefin functionalization have been recently reported featuring photoactivated chlorobis(phenanthroline) Cu(II) complexes. In the current study, the photochemical processes underpinning the catalytic activity of [Cu(dmp)2Cl]Cl (dmp = 2,9-dimethyl-1,10-phenanthroline) were investigated. The combined results from static spectroscopic investigations and conventional photochemistry, ultrafast transient absorption, and electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spin trapping experiments, strongly support blue light (ex = 427 or 470 nm) induced Cu-Cl homolytic bond cleavage in [Cu(dmp)2Cl]+ occurring in less than 100 femtoseconds. Based on electronic structure calculations, this bond breaking photochemistry corresponds to the Cl → Cu(II) ligand-to-metal charge transfer (LMCT) transition, unmasking a Cu(I) species [Cu(dmp)2]+ and a Cl• atom, thereby serving as a departure point for both Cu(I)- or Cu(II)-based photoredox transformations. No net photochemistry was observed through direct excitation of the ligand-field transitions in the red (ex = 785 or 800 nm), and all combined experiments indicated no evidence of Cu-Cl bond cleavage under these conditions. The underlying visible light-induced homolysis (VLIH) of a metal-ligand bond yielding a one electron reduced photosensitizer and a radical species, may form the basis for novel photoredox transformations based on first row transition metal complexes.