Theoretical investigation of electronic structures and excitation energies of hexaphyrin and its group 11 transition metal (III) complexes

Density functional theory is carried out to study hexaphyrin and its bis-metal and mixed bis-metal (M = Cu3+, Ag3+, and Au3+) complexes. The electronic structures and bonding situations of them are studied by using natural bond orbital approach and the topological analysis of the electron localization function. Electronic spectra are investigated by using time-dependent density functional theory. The introduction of group 11 transition metals leads to red shifts in the spectra of these metal complexes with respect to that of hexaphyrin. Moreover, it is noteworthy that the spectra of copper contained complexes are mainly derived from combination of ligand-to-metal charge transfer and ligand-to-ligand charge transfer transitions. In addition, the relativistic time-dependent density functional theory with spin–orbit coupling calculations indicate that the effects of spin–orbit coupling on the excitation energies are so small that it is safe enough to neglect spin–orbit coupling for these systems.

Graphical abstractAccording to the results of NBO and ELF, metal–ligand bonds show slightly covalent character. Metalation leads to red shifts in the spectra of the corresponding metal complexes with respect to that of hexaphyrin. Spin–orbit coupling has little effects on the electronic spectra of metal complexes of hexaphyrin.Figure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload as PowerPoint slide