Testing the Limits of the BOPHY Platform: α, β, and Meso-derivatives

Abstract

Due to the highly fluorescent nature of BOPHY it was hypothesized that this molecule would be good at light harvesting and electron transfer. The first organometallic BOPHY was synthesized and characterized using UV-Vis spectroscopy, voltammetry, and spectroelectrochemistry. These results were correlated with density functional theory (DFT) and time-dependent DFT (TD-DFT) computational methods. It was discovered that there is long range communication between the iron centers over 17 angstroms. Our second study investigated the stability of the BOPHY molecule when subjected to various functional groups. Using UV-Vis spectroscopy, NMR, HRMS and computational data, we have been able to conclude that the cyanation of BOPHY leads to a product that readily decomposes.