Photophysical Properties and Photochemical Behaviour of Ruthenium(II) complexes containing the 2,2′-bipyridine and 4,4′-diphenyl-2,2′-bipyridine ligands

The temperature dependence of the emission lifetime of the series of complexes Ru(bpy)_n(4,4′-dpb) (bpy = 2,2′bipyridine, 4,4′-dpb = 4,4′-diphenyl-2,2′-bipyridine) has been studied in propionitrile/butyronitrile (4:5 v/v) solutions in the range 90–293 K. The obtained photophysical parameters show that the energy separation between the metal-to-ligand charge tranfer (³MLCT) emitting level and the photoreactive metal-centered (³MC) level changes across the series (ΔE = 3960, 4100, 4300, and 4700 cm^?1 for Ru(bpy)), Ru(bpy)2(4,4′-dpb)²⁺, Ru(bpy)(4,4′-dpb), and Ru(4,4′-dpb), respectively, where ΔE is the energy separation between the minimum of the ³MLCT potential curve and ³MLCT – ³MC crossing point. Comparison between spectral and electrochemical data indicated that the changes in ΔE are due to stabilization of the MLCT levels in complexes containing 4,4′-dpb with respect to Ru(bpy)²⁺₃. The photochemical data for the same complexes (as I^? salts) have been obtained in CH₂Cl₂ in the presence of 0.01M Cl^? upon irradiation at 462 nm. The complexes containing 4,4′-dpb are more photostable than Ru(bpy). Comparison between the data for thermal population of the ³MC photoreactive state and those for photochemistry indicated that the overall photochemical process is governed by (i) a thermal redistribution between the emitting and photoreactive excited states, and (ii) mechanistic factors, likely related to the size of the detaching ligand.