Ferrocene-isocoumarin conjugated molecules: synthesis, structural characterization, electronic properties, and DFT-TDDFT computational study.

Two ferrocene-isocoumarin conjugated molecules, methyl 3-ferrocenyl-1-oxo-1H-isochromene-6-carboxylate () and 3,8-bisferrocenylpyrano[3,4-g]isochromene-1,6-dione (), have been synthesized through the acid-prompted regioselective oxidative cyclization from dimethyl 2-(ferrocenylethynyl)terephthalate () and dimethyl 2,5-bis(ferrocenylethynyl)terephthalate (), respectively. Single-crystal X-ray diffraction, together with the density functional theory (DFT) calculations, shows that the ferrocene-isocoumarin conjugated compounds display better coplanarity than the corresponding ferrocenylethynyl terephthalates. All the compounds exhibit characteristic MLCT, ICT and π-π* transitions in the UV-visible range in solution, and and show higher oscillator strength of the absorption than and , which are verified by time-dependent DFT (TDDFT) theoretical calculations. The electrochemical properties are studied by cyclic voltammetry (CV), which are also in accord with the theoretical calculations.