The effects of electronic delocalization in highly coupled mixed valence systems

The trinuclear ruthenium cluster RuO(OAc)6L3 (where L is an ancillary ligand) is used to make a variety of mixed valence compounds in which two or more clusters are joined together by an organic bridging ligand. The magnitude of electronic coupling in the mixed valance state of these compounds is quite large and the complexes reside on the Robin-Day class II/class III borderline. The large degree of coupling in these complexes gives rise to ultrafast electron transfer whose effects are observable in the infrared (IR) spectra of these complexes. Utilizing the IR properties of the complexes we are able to arrive at thermodynamic estimates of the electronic coupling parameter (HAB) for asymmetric mixed valence compounds. These asymmetric compounds give rise to mixed valence isomers and the temperature dependence of the isomer populations is used to determine DeltaH and DeltaS for the electron transfer event in these complexes.;The large coupling in these complexes reduces the barrier to electron transfer significantly (enabling ultrafast electron transfer). This places the rate of electron transfer under the control of the nuclear dynamics of the complex and the surrounding environment. The result is that the rate of electron transfer in these mixed valence complexes shows a strong dependence on kinetic parameters of the solvent (those that describe the movement of the nuclei of the system), but not on thermodynamic parameters of the solvent (that describe more static energetic contributions of the environment). This, in turn, leads to an unexpected temperature dependence of the electron transfer rate. It is found that the electron transfer rate dramatically increases when the solvent is frozen. This results form a decoupling of the relatively slow solvent motions from the electron transfer event allowing for the faster internal vibrational motions of the mixed valence complex to control the rate of electron transfer.;The effects of the large electronic coupling in these complexes also gives rise to other surprising behaviors. The extent of the electronic coupling in the mixed valence systems is known to depend on the electron donor strength of the attached ancillary ligands. It is shown that, through supramoleuclar interactions at the ancillary ligands of these mixed valence systems, the electronic coupling may be modulated. There is a significant decrease in the resonance stabilization associated with breaking of symmetry in a mixed valence system and that this energy (together with the energy gained by restoration of symmetry) can provide substantial driving force for chemical interactions. This effect is explained in terms of both the direct stabilization of the compound through electronic coupling and in terms of resonance stabilization of the unpaired electron in the mixed valence compound. This result is then extended to molecular electronics where it is shown that changes in current effected by a chemical interaction can provide a driving force for said chemical interaction.;The large magnitude of electronic coupling in these mixed valence systems is also shown to be sufficient to stabilize as the ground state what would be thought of as low-lying excited states. It is shown that an electron may transfer from a cluster to the bridging ligand and that this electron transfer gives rise to an increase in electronic coupling throughout the mixed valence state. This increase in electronic coupling is found to be sufficient to stabilize the radical state of the organic bridge.;The large energy difference between uncoupled (diabatic) and coupled (adiabatic) mixed valence compounds is also exploited in order to determine whether an electron entering into the mixed valence molecule enters into a diabatic or adiabatic wavefunction. The electron transfer rate from photo-generated triplet zinc tetraphenylphorpyrin to the mixed valence compounds was observed. Comparisons of the observed electron transfer rate to the diabatic and adiabatic driving force for electron transfer are made. It is concluded that the electron enters into a diabatic wavefunciton of the mixed valence compound after which the compound evolves into the adiabatic wavefunction.;The major theme throughout this thesis is the exploitation of the huge value of electronic coupling (HAB) in order to give rise to and explain some very unique and unexpected behaviors of these mixed valence complexes.