Density Functional Study on the Photopolymerization of Styrene Using Dinuclear Ru–Pd and Ir–Pd Complexes with Naphthyl-Substituted Ligands

A density functional study was performed to investigate the mechanism of the photocatalytic reactivity of styrene polymerization using dinuclear Ru–Pd and Ir–Pd catalytic complexes. In previous experiments with these catalysts, the reactivity increased, and more polymer products were yielded compared to dimers under visible light irradiation. The best catalytic reactivity was obtained using an Ir–Pd complex containing naphthyl substituents at the phenyl ligands coordinated to Ir (Ir–Pd1). In contrast, Ir–Pd2, an isomer of Ir–Pd1, containing naphthyl substituents at the pyridine ligands, did not show good reactivity, which may be related to the stability of the excited state of the catalytic complexes. In this study, we calculated the radiative lifetimes of these catalytic complexes and Ir–Pd1 had the longest lifetime; this result was consistent with the experimental results. The longest lifetime of the Ir–Pd1 was attributed to the destabilization of the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) energy by π*−π* interactions between the naphthyl and phenyl ligands. Further, this destabilization of the HOMO energy afforded a small energy gap between the HOMO and lowest unoccupied molecular orbital, enhancing the metal-to-ligand charge transfer to the bridging ligand between Ir and Pd. Additionally, we focused on the reaction of the second insertion of styrene, which was identified as the rate-determining step of the polymerization cycle in a previous study. The singlet–triplet crossing points of the intermediates were estimated, and the barrier heights of the intersystem crossing were much lower than those in the thermal paths, which explained the efficiency of the photocatalytic reactivity in the experiment.