A series of emissive Cu(I) cationic complexes with 3-(2-pyridyl)-5-phenyl-pyrazole and various phosphines: dppbz (1), Xantphos (2), DPEPhos (3), PPh₃ (4), and BINAP (5) were designed and characterized. Complexes obtained exhibit bright yellow-green emission (ca. 520–650 nm) in the solid state with a wide range of QYs (1–78%) and lifetimes (19–119 µs) at 298 K. The photoluminescence efficiency dramatically depends on the phosphine ligand type. The theoretical calculations of buried volumes and excited states explained the emission behavior for 1–5 as well as their lifetimes. The bulky and rigid phosphines promote emission efficiency through the stabilization of singlet and triplet excited states.

Chiral metal-templated complexes are attractive catalysts for organic synthetic transformations. Herein, we introduce a novel chiral cobalt(III)-templated complex based on chiral trans-3,4-diamino-1-benzylpyrrolidine and 3,5-di-tert-butyl-salicylaldehyde which features both hydrogen bond donor and Brønsted base functionalities. The obtained complexes were fully characterized by ¹H, ¹³C NMR, IR-, UV-vis, CD-spectroscopy and by a single X-ray diffraction analysis. It was shown that chlorine anion is connected with amino groups of the complex via a hydrogen bonding. DFT calculations of charges and molecular electrostatic potential of the cobalt(III) complex showed that the basicity of the complex is certainly diminished as compared with the routine tertiary amines but the acidity of the conjugated acid of the complex should be increased. Thus, the catalytic potential of the complex may be much greater as a chiral acid than a chiral base. We believe that this work opens a new way in chiral bifunctional catalyst design.