Study on an oxygen sensing rhenium(I) complex with enlarged sensing/active area: Fabrication, photophysical parameters and molecular oxygen sensing performance

• A Re(I) complex owing large sensing/active area for O2 sensing was synthesized.
• Its geometric and electronic structures were investigated.
• The large sensing/active area made it a potential probe for oxygen detection.
• A high sensitivity of 17.1 was realized, with short response time of 9 s.

In this paper, we synthesize a novel 1,10-phenanthroline-derived (Phen-derived) diamine ligand of benzo[f][1,10]phenanthroline-6,7-dicarbonitrile (Phen-CN) with enlarged conjugation planar and its corresponding Re(I) complex of Re(CO)3Cl(Phen-CN), hoping to achieve an optical sensor owing large sensing/active area. Its geometric and electronic structures are investigated, which suggests that the effective sensing/active area of Re(CO)3Cl(Phen-CN) is enlarged by the successful formation of conjugation planar. The promising photophysical parameters of Re(CO)3Cl(Phen-CN), including large sensing/active area and long excited state lifetime, make it a potential probe for oxygen detection. By doping Re(CO)3Cl(Phen-CN) into a polymer matrix of poly(vinylpyrrolidone), oxygen sensing performances of the resulted composite materials are investigated. Finally, a high sensitivity of 17.1 is realized, with short response/recovery time of 9 s/32 s.

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