We are engaged in making new UV- and visible-region absorbing molecules.  These have potential for use in dye-sensitized solar cells and for tagging and detection of cellular moieties involved in disease.  These involve derivitization of nitrogen-heterocyclic ligands which are simultaneously large aromatic groups; this is a conceptually simple but often experimentally vexing issue. There are several published benzimidazole N-alkylation procedures, and we have also developed a simple method for this. Our method is in two steps using DMSO and metallic Na, which can result in higher yields and works fairly systematically with a variety of structures in comparison to other published methods, though requiring a longer time. We have also explored the possibility of alkylating and acylating such ruthenium-coordinated benzimidazole-derived chelating agents. We have prepared the novel ligand 2,6-bis(N'-[9�-anthracylmethyl]benzimidazol-2'-yl)pyridine and a ruthenium(II) complex derived from it.  The molecular electrostatic potential (MEP) distribution, frontier molecular orbitals (FMO) and non-linear optical properties of the title molecule will be presented.

<i>N</i>-Functionalization of benzimidazole-derived chelating agents

248th National Meeting (2014)

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N-Functionalization of benzimidazole-derived chelating agents