Synthesis, characterization, photoluminescence and computational studies of mono- and diorgano-gallium complexes containing azo linked salicylaldimine Schiff bases

Abstract The reactions of triorgano-gallium etherate with azo linked salicylaldimine Schiff bases in benzene gave complexes of the type [R 2 GaOC 6 H 3 (N NPh) (CH NAr)], [R 2 GaOC 6 H 3 (N NPh) (CH NCH 2 –)] 2 , [{R 2 GaOC 6 H 3 (N NPh) (CH NCH 2 CH 2 } 3 N] and [C 6 H 5 –N N–C 6 H 3 (4′-OGaRO)-3′-CH N–C 6 H 4 ] (R = Me or Et; Ar = Ph or tol-4). These complexes have been characterized by elemental analysis, IR, UV–Vis, NMR ( 1 H and 13 C{ 1 H}) spectroscopy. The molecular structures of [Me 2 GaOC 6 H 3 (N NPh)CH NPh]·½C 6 H 6 ( 5a ·½C 6 H 6 ) and [Me 2 GaOC 6 H 3 (N NPh) (CH Ntol-4)] ( 5c ) were established by X-ray crystallography. Density functional calculations have also been performed to obtain structure and energetic information for the bare ligands and the metal-ligand complexes. Photoluminescence studies of these complexes showed that the quantum yield is always higher than that of the corresponding ligands and the emission peaks of complexes are blue shifted with respect to ligand.