ABAB homoleptic bis(phthalocyaninato)lanthanide(III) complexes: original octupolar design leading to giant quadratic hyperpolarizability.

The octupolar cube, a Td symmetry cube presenting alternating charges at its corners, is the generic point charge template of any octupolar molecule. So far, transposition into real molecular structures has yet to be achieved. We report here a first step toward the elaboration of fully cubic octupolar architectures. A series of octupolar bis(2,3,16,17-tetra(hexylthio)phthalocyaninato)lanthanide double-decker complexes [Pc2Ln], Ln = Nd (1), Eu (2), Dy (3), Y (4), and Lu (5), are described, whose original three-dimensional structures display the required alternation of ABAB type for one face of the cube and the delocalization between the two rings approximating to the electronic interaction along the edges of the cube. Synthesis, X-ray crystal structure, and study of the optical properties and of the first molecular hyperpolarizability β are reported. The size of the lanthanide (III) central ion modulates the ring-to-ring distance and the degree of coupling between the two phthalocyanine rings. As a consequence, the optical properties of these octupolar chromophores and in particular the strong near-infrared absorption due to the intervalence transition between the two rings also depend on the central lanthanide (III) ion. The first oxidized and reduced states of the complexes, while keeping a similar octupolar structure, display considerably changed optical properties compared to the neutral states. Second-order nonlinear properties were determined by nonpolarized harmonic light scattering in solution at 1907 nm. Exceptionally large dynamic molecular first hyperpolarizabilities √(1907), among the highest ever reported, were found that showed a strong dependence on the number of 4f electrons.