Research topics being pursued by the Omary group:

The Omary group is pursuing research into optoelectronic applications of luminescent materials. State-of-the-art spectroscopic instruments are being used for these studies such as: modern luminescence systems for steady-state and time-resolved measurements, tunable laser sources, molecular UV-VIS-NIR absorption and diffuse reflectance spectrophotometers, resonance Raman systems, and optical cryostats for temperature-dependent measurements down to liquid helium temperature (4.2 K) for solids and solutions. Modern DFT and ab initio computations are also being used to further characterize the electronic structure of the materials studied. Several classes of compounds are being synthesized and studied, including:

• Phosphorescent materials for light-emitting display devices (LEDs):
We are designing synthetic strategies to enhance the phosphorescence of organic and inorganic luminophores.  In one approach, conventional organic fluorophores are made to exhibit room-temperature phosphorescence in the solid state owing to either an external or internal heavy atom effect in systematically designed systems that contain d10 metals.  In another approach, metal-based emissions in monomeric, oligomeric, and polymeric coordination compounds of monovalent coinage metals.  The enhancement of phosphorescence should lead to LEDs with stronger electroluminescence quantum efficiency (QE), as the maximum theoretical internal QE is usually 25% for fluorescent LEDs while it can be up to 100% for phosphorescent LEDs.

• Charge-Transfer Complexes as Solar Cell Dyes:
We have been synthesizing "black absorbers" that are capable of absorbing strongly across the visible region and into the near infrared (NIR) region.  One useful class consists of (diimine)(dithiolate) compounds of d8 transition metals (PtII,  PdII, and NiII) with anchoring groups (e.g., carboxylate or phosphonate) attached to the diimine in order to allow their adsorption on the surface of a wide band gap semiconductors such as TiO2 or SnO2. The band gap of such semiconductors is in the UV region, too high to overlap with the desired solar spectral range, but attaching dyes of charge transfer complexes to the surface of the semiconductor results in efficient absorption of the solar radiation.  A second class involves donor-acceptor neutral and ionic compounds in which the donor is a d8 complex and the acceptor is an organic compound such as various TCNX nitriles and poly(nitro)-9-fluorenones.  These binary materials absorb strongly across the visible and into a significant portion of the NIR region and we have discovered that there is no need to have conventional anchoring groups in such complexes.

RECENT PUBLICATIONS-since 2005

60. Omary, M. A.; Elbjeirami, O.; Palehepitiya Gamage, C. S.; Sherman, K.; Dias, H. V. R. "Phosphorescence Enhancement of Naphthalene-Sandwiched Trinuclear Silver(I) Complexes of 3,5-Bis(trifluoromethyl)pyrazolate", Inorg. Chem. 2009, 47, in press: DOI: 10.1021/ic8021326.PDF

59. Yang, C.; Wang, X.; Omary, M. A. "Crystallographic observation of the dynamic gas adsorption sites and thermal expansion in a breathable fluorous metal-organic framework", Angew. Chem. 2009, in press: DOI: 10.1002/anie.200804739: (JOURNAL COVER). PDF

58. Rabaa, H.; Cundari, T. R.; Omary, M. A. "Combined Tight Binding/DFT Investigation of the Electronic Structure of Triimine-Platinum(II)/TCNQ Extended Stacks: Theoretical Prediction of Metallic Behavior", Can. J. Chem. (special issue) 2008, in press: DOI: 10.1139/V08-175. INVITED ARTICLE. PDF

57. Elbjeirami, O.; Gonser, M. W. A.; Stewart, B. N.; Bruce, A. E.; Bruce, M. R. M.; Cundari, T. R.; Omary, M. A. "Luminescence, Structural, and Bonding Trends upon Varying the Halogen in Isostructural Aurophilic Dimers", Dalton Trans. 2008, in press: DOI: 10.1039/b81385c; (JOURNAL COVER). PDF

56. Quevedo-Lopez, M. A.; Alshareef, H. N.; Jia, H.; Bhansali, U.; Avendano, A.; Gnade, B. E.; Omary, M. A. "Organic Light Emitting Diodes for Flexible Electronics", Future FAB 2008, 26, 30-36. PDF

55. Tekarli, S. M.; Cundari, T. R.; Omary, M. A. "Rational Design of Macrometallocyclic Trinuclear Complexes with Superior p-Acidity and p-Basicity", J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2008, 130, 1669-1675. PDF

54. Taylor, T. J.; Elbjeirami, O.; Burress, C. N.; Tsunoda, M.; Bodine, M. I.; Omary, M. A.; Gabbai, F. P. "Complexation of tolane by fluorinated organomercurials - Structures and luminescence properties of an unusual class of supramolecular p-coordination polymers", J. Inorg. Organomet. Polym. 2008, 18, 175-179. PDF

53. Yang, C.; Wang, X.; Omary, M. A. "Fluorous Metal-Organic Frameworks for High-Density Gas Adsorption", J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2007, 129, 15454-15455. PDF HIGHLIGHTED IN: a) Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2008, 47, 8164-8164. b) THE E-JOURNAL "ENTREPRENEUR"; SEE: http://www.entrepreneur.com/tradejournals/article/177363186.html

52. Elbjeirami, O.; Omary, M. A. “Photochemistry of Neutral Isonitrile Gold(I) Complexes: Modulation of Photoreactivity by Aurophilicity and p-Acceptance Ability”, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2007, available online.  PDF

51. Arvapally, R. K.; Sinha, P.; Hettiarachchi, S. R.; Coker, N. L.; Bedel, C. E.; Patterson, H. H.; Elder, R. C.; Wilson, A. K.; Omary, M. A. “Photophysics of Bis(thiocyanato)gold(I) Complexes: Intriguing Structure-Luminescence Relationships”, J. Phys. Chem. C 2007, 111, 10689-10699.  PDF

50. Elbjeirami, O.; Burress, C. N.; Gabbaï, F. P.; Omary, M. A.Simultaneous External and Internal Heavy-Atom Effects in Binary Adducts of 1-Halonaphthalenes with Trinuclear Perfluoro-ortho-phenylene Mercury(II): A Structural and Photophysical Study”, J. Phys. Chem. C 2007, 111, 9522-9529.  PDF

49. Omary, M. A.; Colis, J. C. F.; Larochelle, C. L.; Patterson, H. H. “Optical Memory and Multi-step Luminescence Thermochromism in Single Crystals of K2Na[Ag(CN)2]3”, Inorg. Chem. 2007, 46, 3798-3800.   PDF

48. Elbjeirami, O.; Yockel, S.; Campana, C. F.; Wilson, A. K.; Omary, M. A. “Photophysics and Bonding in Neutral Gold(I) Organometallic Complexes with an Extended Aurophilic Supramolecular Structure”, Organometallics 2007, 26, 2550-2560.  PDF

47. Burress, C. N.; Bodine, M. I.; Elbjeirami, O.; Reibenspies, J. H.; Omary, M. A.; Gabbaï, F. P. “Enhancement of External Spin-Orbit Coupling Effects Caused by Metal-Metal Cooperativity”, Inorg. Chem. 2007, 46, 1388-1395. PDF

46. Yang, C.; Messerschmidt, M.; Coppens, C.; Omary, M. A. “Trinuclear Gold(I) Triazolates: A New Class of Wide-Band Phosphors and Sensors”, Inorg. Chem. 2006, 45, 6592-6594.  PDF

45. Barakat, K. A.; Cundari, T. R.; Rabaâ, H.; Omary, M. A. “Disproportionation of Gold(II) Complexes. A Density Functional Study of Ligand and Solvent Effects”, J. Phys. Chem. B 2006, 110, 14645-14651.  PDF

44. Grimes, T.; Omary, M. A.; Dias, H. V. R.; Cundari, T. R. “Intertrimer and Intratrimer Metallophilic and Excimeric Bonding in the Ground and Phosphorescent Excited States of Trinuclear Coinage Metal Pyrazolates: A Computational Study”, J. Phys. Chem. A 2006, 110, 5823-5830.  PDF

43. Chen, W. –H.; Reinheimer, E. W.; Dunbar, K. R.; Omary, M. A. “Coarse- and Fine-Tuning the Electronic Energies of Triimine Platinum (II) Square Planar Complexes”, Inorg. Chem. 2006, 45, 2770-2772. PDF

42. Sinha, P.; Wilson, A. K.; Omary, M. A. “Beyond a T-Shape”, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2005, 127, 12488-12489.  PDF

41. Omary, M. A.; Rawashdeh-Omary, M. A.; Gonser, M. W. A.; Elbjeirami, O.; Grimes, T.; Cundari, T. R.; Diyabalanage, H, V. K.; Palehepitiya Gamage, C. S.; Dias, H. V. R. “Metal Effect on the Supramolecular Structure, Photophysics, and Acid/Base Character of Trinuclear Pyrazolato Coinage Metal Complexes”, Inorg. Chem. 2005, 44, 8200-8210. PDF JOURNAL COVER; URL: http://pubs.acs.org/action/showLargeCover?issue=40364397

40. Burress, C.; Elbjeirami, O.; Omary, M. A.; Gabbaï, F. P. “Five-Order-of-Magnitude Reduction of the Triplet Lifetimes of N-Heterocycles by Complexation to a Trinuclear Mercury Complex”, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2005, 127, 12166-12167.  PDF

39. Mohamed, A. A.; Rawashdeh-Omary, M. A.; Omary, M. A.; Fackler, J. P., Jr. “External heavy-atom effect of gold in a supramolecular acid-base p stack” Dalton Trans. 2005, 2597–2602.

38. Vorontsov, I. I.; Kovalevsky, A. Yu.; Chen, Y-S.; Graber, T.; Novozhilova, I. V.; Omary, M. A.; Coppens, P. “Shedding Light on the Structure of a Photo-induced Transient Excimer by Time-resolved Diffraction” Phys. Rev. Lett. 2005, 94, 193003/1–193003/4.

37. Dias, H. V. R.; Diyabalanage, H. V. K.; Eldabaja, M. G.; Elbjeirami, O.; Rawashdeh-Omary, M. A.; Omary, M. A. “Brightly Phosphorescent Trinuclear Copper(I) Complexes of Pyrazolates: Substituent Effects on the Supramolecular Structure and Photophysics”, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2005, 127, 7489-7501.  PDF

36. Omary, M. A.; Sinha, P.; Bagus, P.S.; Wilson, A.K. “Electronic Structure of Mercury Oligomers and Exciplexes: Models for Long-range/Multi-center Bonding in Phosphorescent Transition Metal Compounds”, J. Phys. Chem. A 2005, 109, 690-702.   PDF

35. Omary, M. A.; Mohamed, A. A.; Rawashdeh-Omary, M. A.; Fackler, J. P., Jr. “Photophysics of Supramolecular Binary Stacks Consisting of Electron-rich Trinuclear Au(I) Complexes and Organic Electrophiles” Coord. Chem. Rev. 2005, 249, 1372-1381.

  Updated January 30 by Roy McDougald Jr.