Affiliation: | a Department of Chemistry, Boston University, Boston, MA 02215, USA b Department of Chemistry, Wichita State University, Wichita, KS 67260, USA c Istituto di Fotochimica e Radiazioni d'Alta Energia del C.N.R., Via P. Gobetti 101, 40129, Bologna, Italy |
Abstract: | The photophysics of three complexes of the form Ru(bpy)3−(pypm)2+ (where bpy2,2′-bipyridine, pypm 2-(2′-pyridyl)pyrimidine and P=1, 2 or 3) was examined in H2O, propylene carbonate, CH3CN and 4:1 (v/v) C2H5OH---CH3OH; comparison was made with the well-known photophysical behavior of Ru(bpy)32+. The lifetimes of the luminescent metal-to-ligand charge transfer (MLCT) excited states were determined as a function of temperature (between −103 and 90 °C, depending on the solvent), from which were extracted the rate constants for radiative and non-radiative decay and ΔE, the energy gap between the MLCT and metal-centered (MC) excited states. The results indicate that *Ru(bpy)2(pypm)2+ decays via a higher lying MLCT state, whereas *Ru(pypm)32+ and *Ru(pypm)2(bpy)2+ decay predominantly via the MC state. |