View article

The excited-state dynamics, luminescence, and redox properties of a series of hexanuclear molybdenum cluster complexes, (nBu4N)2[Mo6X14] and (nBu4N)2[Mo6X8(CF3COO)6] (X = Cl, Br, or I), were investigated. Substitution of the apical halogen ligands for the trifluoroacetate ligands increased the oxidation potentials and induced a blue shift in the absorption and luminescence bands as well as a considerable increase in the luminescence quantum yields for heavy inner ligands. Time-resolved transient absorption measurements showed that the intersystem crossing from the excited singlet states is ultrafast with time constants ranging between <120 fs and 1.68 ps and leads to hot triplet states. The following cooling occurred at a ps time scale and was assigned to electronic redistribution within the emissive triplet state sublevels. The formation of singlet oxygen, O2(1Δg), suggested earlier on the basis of …