Ruthenium complexes photostability

Barrau and coworkers have synthesized a series of iron and ruthenium complexes by irradiation of Me2HGe(CH)KGeMe2H and Me2HGe(CH)K SiMe2H (n = 1, 2) in the presence of Fe(CO)5 and Ru3(CO)i293. In each case irradiation causes CO loss, with the formation of the M(CO)4 species (reaction 43). When n = 2 the products are photostable with n = 1 (65) a mixture of products (66-69) are obtained due to secondary photolysis (reaction 44). The mechanism, outlined in Scheme 23, is presented to explain these observations. 

Most photosensitizers, however, are reasonably photostable compounds, and their optical properties have been studied in depth. In particular, there has been much interest in ruthenium-based photosensitizers such as [Ru(bpy)3]2+ and [Ru(phen)3]2+, due to their stability and absorption of visible light. Detailed information on their optical properties, including ground and excited state information in relation to photosensitization, has been reviewed by Creutz et al. [16]. Similarly, the photochemistry and photophysics of rhenium complexes, as discussed here, have been reviewed in detail by Kirgan et al. [7]. 

The analogous osmium polymers have also been studied in great detail. The synthetic procedures required for these metallopolymers are the same as those described above for ruthenium however, the reaction times are longer. The similarity between the analogous mononuclear and polymeric species is further illustrated by the fact that the corresponding osmium polymers have considerably lower redox potentials and are also photostable, as expected on the basis of the behavior observed for osmium polypyridyl complexes. 

Photocatalytic enantioselective oxidative arylic coupling reactions have been investigated by two different groups. Both studies involved the use of ruthenium-based photocatalysts [142, 143]. In 1993, Hamada and co-workers introduced a photostable chiral ruthenium tris(bipyridine)-type complex (A-[Ru(menbpy)3]2+) 210 possessing high redox ability [143]. The catalytic cycle also employed Co(acac)3 211 to assist in the generation of the active (A-[Ru(menbpy)3]3+) species 212. The authors suggested that the enantioselection observed upon binaphthol formation was the result of a faster formation of the (R)-enantiomer from the intermediate 213 (second oxidation and/or proton loss), albeit only to a rather low extent (ee 16 %) (Scheme 54). 

Photolysis of bulky permethylated Fp complexes such as FpSi[Si(CH3)3]3 does not cause deoligomerization, possibly because stable intermediate iron-silyl(silylene) complexes are not formed (27). Other less bulky transi-tion-metal-oligosilane complexes are also unreactive under the photolysis conditions. For example, the ruthenium analogues of the iron complexes, [( ri -C5H5)Ru(CO)2-Si ], are essentially photostable (23). Whether this behavior is due to the strength of the Ru-CO bond or to the enhanced stability of the Si-Si bond is not clear, and this problem is currently under investigation. 

Ruthenium(II) polypyridyl complexes are employed as antenna molecules [311, 333-337] for a variety of reasons [338, 339] Ruthenium(II) polypyridyl complexes (i) are photostable under illumination, (ii) have strong metal-to-ligand-charge-transfer absorption (MLCT) in the visible, (iii) have high lying MLCT excited states (ii°o 2.0 eV), and (iv) are powerful electron donors in the MLCT excited state E 2 ( [Ru(bpy)3] +/[Ru(bpy)3] +) = -0.63 V relative to the SCE in di-chloromethane). Thus, the latter should be able to generate the one-electron reduced fullerene r-radical anion [E i2 = -0.41 V relative to the SCE in dichloro-methane) [338, 339]. 

---