New Iron Carbene Complexes for Photofunctional Applications

Materials capable of absorbing and/or emitting light are fundamental for applications such as solar energy conversion, LEDs for lighting, displays and biosensing.

In the last 8-years we have made significant breakthroughs to develop the first iron-based complexes for light-harvesting and -emitting components in photofunctional materials.

We were the first to demonstrate iron-based molecular photoluminescence of visible light and the discovery of a strategy to design iron-based photofunctional materials with FeIII complexes as opposed to the more explored FeII form.

This has received great interest in the international community and paves the way for iron as inexpensive, and environmentally friendly element for emerging large-scale molecular energy conversion devices currently relying on rare and expensive metals such as ruthenium.

Building on our recent progress,we now propose to develop the fundamental science of how to improve the excited-state properties of iron complexes further by advanced ligand design and synthesis. New iron structures are herein presented.

Their optical properties will be studied by advanced spectroscopy.Their performance as photosensitizers/-catalysts in laboratory solar cells, and photoelectrochemical cells for hydrogen gas production, will be evaluated.

This will lead to an improved understanding of light-interactions and excited state properties of Earth-abundant transition metal complexes and to future large-scale sustainable energy production..