Highly packed and stretched polyterpyridinyl Ru2+ complexes and their photophysical and stability properties

•A highly packed and stretched trinuclear terpyridine based Ru2+ complexes are proposed.•The structure stabilization relies on the changes of different ligand controlled complex.•Intermolecular twist should strictly effect the emission.•ESI Mass proves the disassociation of complex C1 and the stabled C2.

Two unique trinuclear terpyridine-ruthenium complexes having similar components placed at different angels were successfully synthesized and fully characterized for the purpose of determining the photophysical and electronic properties. The corresponding UV–vis absorptions and similar electrochemical properties showed characteristic MLCT transitions in both complexes. However, complex C2 displayed an intense emission at 77 K, as expected, where highly packed complex C1 is almost non-emissive. This result may due to that a distinct configuration adopted by the complex impacts ligand field strength.

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