Photophysics of bis-bipyridyl complexes of ruthenium(II) with triphenylphosphine

We studied the spectral-luminescent characteristics of the luminescence of mixed-ligand polypyridine-phosphine complexes of ruthenium(II) cis-Ru(bpy)₂(PPh₃)X](BF₄) _n with ligands 2,2′-bipyridyl (bpy) and triphenylphosphine (PPh₃) and X = Cl⁻, Br⁻, CN⁻, NO₂⁻, NH₃, MeCN, pyridine (py), 4-aminopyridine (pyNH₂), and 4,4′-bipyridyl (4,4′-bpy) in a 4: 1 EtOH-MeOH alcoholic mixture at 77 K. The radiative and nonradiative deactivation rate constants of the lowest electronically excited state of the complexes are determined. We find that triphenylphosphine has a greater effect on the photophysical characteristics of ruthenium(II) complexes compared to π-acceptor strong-field ligands, such as MeCN, CN⁻, and NO₂⁻. At the same time, the characteristics of complexes cis-Ru(bpy)₂(PPh₃)X] ⁿ⁺ considerably depend on the nature of the second monodentate ligand X, which is coordinated to ruthenium(II), and correlate with its position in the spectrochemical series of ligands.