Luminescent metal alkynyls – from simple molecules to molecular rods and materials

This review describes the design and synthesis of a number of luminescent transition metal alkynyls by this laboratory. The luminescence properties of the complexes have been studied and their emission origin elucidated. Some of these complexes have been shown to be ideal building blocks for the design and construction of luminescent molecular rods and materials, in which the luminescence properties can be readily tuned by changing the alkynyl ligands. Some of them also exhibited luminescence switching behaviour with the “ON–OFF” luminescence states modulated by redox processes, metal ion-binding or solvent composition.