Polypyridyl ligands with substitutions on the aromatic ring can have significant impacts on the electronic properties of metal complex to which they are bonded. Most notably, using substitutions that are protonatable/deprotonatable groups leads to the potential to tune the electronic properties as a function of pH. To this end, our research lab has studied the 4,4'-dihydroxy-2,2'-bipryidine (44'bpy(OH)2) ligand extensively when complexed to ruthenium with 2,2'-bipyridine (bpy) as the ancillary ligand. This study reports structural, electronic and computational studies of [Ru(phen)2(44'bpy(OH)2)]2+ (phen = 1,10-phenanthroline), where the ancillary ligand is altered to the more rigid phen ligand. The complex adopts a distorted octahedral geometry similar to many ruthenium-substituted polypyridyl complexes. Deprotonation of the [Ru(phen)2(44'bpy(OH)2)]2+ complex to [Ru(phen)2(44'bpy(O-)2)] yields a red shift of the UV/Visible spectrum in acetonitrile, which has been observed with other ruthenium complexes containing hydroxyl-substituted polypyridyl ligands. Computational analysis of the electronic transitions of the protonated [Ru(phen)2(44'bpy(OH)2)]2+ complex and the corresponding deprotonated complex will also be reported.

Comparison of 2,2'-bipyridine and 1,10-phenanthroline ancillary ligands in ruthenium metal complexes containing the 4,4'-dihydroxy-2,2'-bipryidine ligand

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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