Luminescent Ruthenium Complexes for Photoreactions

Luminescent ruthenium complexes offer a number of advantages over conventional dyes such as

• Easy design of luminescent properties, redox reactivity, lipophilicity/solubility and electric charge
• Very long lifetimes of luminescence of up to 1 µs
• Large stokes shifts of more than 150 nm

They are used as DNA intercalator dyes (Cat.# FP-411, FP-412) [1], for protein labeling (Cat.# FP-402) [2] and FRET/PRET immunoassays [3] or as sensors for molecular oxygen [4], light-driven catalysis [5] and dye-sensitized solar cells [6].

Complexes with desired properties can be easily obtained by complexation of a building block with a ligand under mild conditions in aqueous environment and without the need for special laboratory equipment. For example, building block Cat.# FP-421 in combination with ligand Cat.# FP-434 generates a complex with an emission wavelength of approximately 700 nm, whereas its combination with ligand Cat.# FP-433 results in emission at 610 nm [7].

Building Blocks

Ruthenium complexes acting as building blocks for the synthesis of custom made dyes

Ligands

Corresponding ligands for adjusting chemical and photophysical features of the dyes

Selected References

[1] Friedman et al. (1990) Molecular "Light Switch" for DNA: Ru(bpy)2(dppz)2+. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 112:4960

[2] Terpetschnig et al. (1995) Metal-ligand complexes as a new class of long-lived fluorophores for protein hydrodynamics. Biophys. J. 68 (1):342

[3] Weh et al. (2007) A Resonance Energy Transfer Immunoassay Based on a Thiol-Reactive Ruthenium Donor Dye and a Longwave-Emitting Acceptor. ChemBioChem 8:122

[4] McEvoy et al. (1996) Dissolved oxygen sensor based on fluorescence quenching of oxygen-sensitive ruthenium complexes immobilized in sol–gel-derived porous silica coatings. Analyst 121:785

[5] Esswein et al. (2007) Hydrogen Production by Molecular Photocatalysis. Chem. Rev. 107:4022

[6] Hagfeldt et al. (2000) Molecular Photovoltaics. Acc. Chem. Res. 33:269

[7] Schwalbe et al. (2008) Synthesis and characterisation of poly(bipyridine)ruthenium complexes as building blocks for heterosupramolecular arrays. Eur. J. Inorg. Chem. 21:3310