2-Phenylpyridine is an
organic compound
In chemistry, organic compounds are generally any chemical compounds that contain carbon-hydrogen or carbon-carbon bonds. Due to carbon's ability to catenate (form chains with other carbon atoms), millions of organic compounds are known. The ...
with the formula C
6H
5C
5H
4N (or C
11H
9N). It is a colourless viscous liquid. The compound and related derivatives have attracted interest as precursors to highly fluorescent
metal complex
A coordination complex consists of a central atom or ion, which is usually metallic and is called the ''coordination centre'', and a surrounding array of bound molecules or ions, that are in turn known as ''ligands'' or complexing agents. Many ...
es of possible value as
organic light emitting diode
An organic light-emitting diode (OLED or organic LED), also known as organic electroluminescent (organic EL) diode, is a light-emitting diode (LED) in which the emissive electroluminescent layer is a film of organic compound that emits light i ...
s (OLEDs).
The compound is prepared by the reaction of
phenyl lithium
Phenyllithium or lithobenzene is an organometallic agent with the empirical formula C6H5Li. It is most commonly used as a metalating agent in organic syntheses and a substitute for Grignard reagents for introducing phenyl groups in organic synth ...
with pyridine:
:C
6H
5Li + C
5H
5N → C
6H
5-C
5H
4N + LiH
The reaction of
iridium trichloride
Iridium(III) chloride is the inorganic compound with the formula IrCl3. The anhydrous compound is relatively rare, but the related hydrate is useful for preparing other iridium compounds. The anhydrous salt is a dark green crystalline solid. ...
with 2-phenylpyridine proceeds via cyclometallation to give the chloride-bridged complex:
:4 C
6H
5-C
5H
4N + 2 IrCl
3(H
2O)
3 → Ir
2Cl
2(C
6H
4-C
5H
4N)
4 + 4 HCl
This complex can be converted to the pictured tris(cyclometallated) derivative
tris(2-phenylpyridine)iridium.
References
Further reading
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Phenylpyridine, 2-
2-Pyridyl compounds
Photochemistry
Ligands
Phenyl compounds