Metal complex dendrimers electrochemical behavior

PBE dendrons bearing a focal bipyridine moiety have been demonstrated to coordinate to Ru + cations, exhibiting luminescence from the metal cation core by the excitation of the dendron subunits [28-30]. The terminal peripheral unit was examined (e.g., phenyl, naphthyl, 4-f-butylphenyl) to control the luminescence. The Ru +-cored dendrimer complexes are thought to be photo/redox-active, and photophysical properties, electrochemical behavior, and excited-state electron-transfer reactions are reported. 

The electroactive units in the dendrimers that we are going to discuss are the metal-based moieties. An important requirement for any kind of application is the chemical redox reversibility of such moieties. The most common metal complexes able to exhibit a chemically reversible redox behavior are ferrocene and its derivatives and the iron, ruthenium and osmium complexes of polypyridine ligands. Therefore it is not surprising that most of the investigated dendrimers contain such metal-based moieties. In the electrochemical window accessible in the usual solvents (around +2/-2V) ferrocene-type complexes undergo only one redox process, whereas iron, ruthenium and osmium polypyridine complexes undergo a metal-based oxidation process and at least three ligand-based reduction processes. 

In dendrimers based on metals as branching centers (Fig. 1 d), the electrochemical behavior is even more complex since (i) each unit of the dendrimer is electro active, (ii) the chemical nature of the metal-based units constituting the dendrimer may be different, (iii) chemically equivalent units can be different from the topological viewpoint, and (iv) the degree of interaction among the moieties depends on their chemical nature and distance. 

For space reasons, we will deal mainly with the electrochemical behavior of large dendritic compounds. Therefore, the electrochemical properties of a number of borderline compounds [14] between metal complexes and dendrimers have not been included in this review. 

The dendrimer-type tetranuclear Ru(II)-Os(II)3 complex (22, protonated form) shows an interesting electrochemical behavior due to the presence of free basic sites in its bridging ligands [41]. The protonated form shows a 3-1 oxidation pattern due to the simultaneous oxidation of the three Os-based units, followed by the one-electron oxidation of the Ru-based unit. On addition of base, the six chelating moieties (three on the Ru center and one on each Os center) undergo deprotonation. This causes changes in the oxidation potential of the metal ions, with a consequent switching from 3-1 to 1-3 in the oxidation pattern. 

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