In the present study, the SO- NTO technique was applied to analyze triplet-to-singlet emission in a set of transition metal complexes with Mo, W, Re, and Ir. The source of intensity in the spin-orbit forbidden transitions has been demonstrated and discussed.

Abstract

Spin-orbit natural transition orbital (SO-NTO) methodology, recently developed in our group for complete and restricted active space (CAS/RAS) wavefunction calculations, is applied to analyze triplet-to-singlet emission in transition metal complexes. The lowest-energy (longest-wavelength) spin-forbidden transition is studied for for [Ir(pbt)2(acac)] and [Re(CO)4(pbt)] and the complexes [W(CO)4(bpy)] and [Mo(CO)4(bpy)]. For the latter complexes, spin-forbidden transitions from higher spin-triplet levels are additionally analyzed. SO-NTOs are compared with spin-free NTOs for the transitions under consideration. The major assignment of a spin-forbidden transition is obtained from the spin-free NTO analysis, while the source of intensity of the electronic transition is revealed by the SO-NTOs.