The tridentate ligand 4-carboxy-6-phenyl-2,2'-bipyridine (HL1) was used to prepare thecyclometalated Pd(II) complex [Pd(L1)Cl] (
1). Similar ligands were effective in the formationof [Pd(L2)Cl] (
2) and [Pd(L3)Cl] (
3) (where HL2 = 4-carboxyphenyl-6-phenyl-2,2'-bipyridineand HL3 = 4-hydroxyphenyl-6-phenyl-2,2'-bipyridine). The crystal structure of [Pd(L1)Cl]·H
2O has been determined by X-ray diffraction, revealing a variegated array of H-bondingmotifs and
![](/images/gifchars/pi.gif)
-stacking. The [Pd(L1)Cl] molecules are associated in dimers with an intradimerPd···Pd distance of 3.27 Å, while dimers are separated by interdimer Pd···Pd contacts of5.41 Å. All complexes
1-
3 exhibited intense luminescence at 77 K, with lifetimes in the10-200
![](/images/entities/mgr.gif)
s range. The luminescence is assigned to metal-perturbed triplet ligand-centered(LC) excited states for
1 and
3 (partially mixed with an upper-lying metal-to-ligand chargetransfer (MLCT) level) and to an excimeric excited state for
2. Room-temperature solid-state luminescence was also revealed by
1 (emission energy and lifetime of 650 nm and 1
![](/images/entities/mgr.gif)
s, respectively), which has been assigned to oligomeric species. Differences in thephotophysical properties of
1-
3 are addressed with reference to the chemical structure andelectronic properties of their polypyridine ligands.