Platinum acetylide complexes containing iptycene as cores: A new family of unexpected efficient organometallic gelators

A new family of platinum acetylide derivatives containing iptycene building blocks end-capped with 3,4,5-tris(alkoxy)phenyl substituents has been successfully synthesized. The structure of the newly designed complexes was characterized by multinuclear NMR (¹H, ³¹P, and ¹³C) and mass spectroscopy and elemental analysis. Unexpectedly, all compounds presented good gel formation properties in some common organic solvents. The morphology of the xerogels was investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). An investigation using electronic absorption and emission spectra was carried out to study the spectroscopic properties of all organometallic complexes in both solution and gel states.