title: Energy transfer from rhenium(I) complexes to covalently attached anthracenes and phenanthrenes.
abstract: The synthesis and photophysical properties of a series of chromophore-quencher complexes are reported. They are all comprised of a luminescent rhenium(I) tricarbonyl diimine complex that is covalently attached to anthracene or phenanthrene moieties via rigid rod-like p-xylene bridges of variable lengths. Rhenium-to-anthracene energy transfer is strongly exergonic (-DeltaG0 approximately 0.9 eV) and causes very efficient rhenium MLCT luminescence quenching. By contrast, rhenium-to-phenanthrene energy transfer is only observed when complexes with sufficiently high MLCT energies are used because for these dyads, the driving force for energy transfer is low (-DeltaG0 approximately 0.1 eV). For a approximately 15 angstroms donor-acceptor distance, the rate constants of the weakly and the strongly exergonic energy transfer processes differ by more than 3 orders of magnitude.
authors.affiliation: Department of Inorganic, Analytical and Applied Chemistry, University of Geneva, 30 Quai Ernest-Ansermet, CH-1211 Geneva, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Mathieu E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Walther
authors.forename: Oliver S
authors.initials: OS
authors.lastname: Wenger