Electronic and fluorescence spectral studies of a novel porphyrin-polypyridyl ruthenium(II) hybrid linked by a butyl chain

The electronic and fluorescence spectroscopic properties of a novel porphyrin-polypyridyl ruthenium(II) hybrid, [C4-TPP-(ip)Ru(phen)2](ClO4)2 (TPP = 5,10,15,20-tetraphenylporphyrin, ip = imidazo[4,5-f][1,10]phenanthroline and phen = 1,10-Phenanthroline), in which a polypyridyl ruthenium(II) moiety is linked to a porphyrin moiety by a butyl chain have been investigated and compared to its corresponding reference compounds. The studies of electronic absorption spectra have shown that there is an electronic interaction between the porphyrin moiety and the polypyridyl ruthenium(II) moiety in the hybrid. It can be found that intramolecular photoinduced electron and energy transfer processes may occur in the hybrid from the fluorescence spectra. When exciting in Soret band and Q band of porphyrin, the fluorescence quenching of the porphyrin moiety of the hybrid takes place due to electron transfer from the lowest singlet excited state (S1) to the appended polypyridyl rutherium(II) moiety, while the decay of S2 (the second-excited singlet state) of the porphyrin moiety is mainly contributed to internal conversion to S1. When exciting in MLCT band of the polypyridyl ruthenium(II) moiety, fluorescence corresponding to the polypyridyl ruthenium(II) moiety is quenched by intramolecular energy transfer from 3MLCT of the ruthenium moiety to the lowest-energy triplet state localized on the porphyrin moiety.