Département de chimie moléculaire

Quant. oxidn. of [Fe-(ttpy)2]2+ (1) (ttpy = 4'-(4-methylphenyl)-2,2':6',2''-terpyridine) has been performed in CH3CN by continuous photolysis expts. in the presence of [Ru-(ttpy)2]2+ (2) and a large excess of a diazonium salt (ArN2+) as sacrificial oxidant. The reaction occurs with a low quantum yield (ϕ = 10-3). The photooxidn. process is fully characterized and shows that (2) acts as an antenna and transfers the excitation energy to (1). The latter complex in its excited state is oxidized by ArN2+. Thiolated derivs. of both complexes, i.e., [Fe-(ttpySH)2]2+ (3) (ttpySH = 4'-(4-(2-mercaptoethoxy)-phenyl)-2,2':6',2''-terpyridine) and [Ru-(ttpySH)2]2+ (4), have been self-assembled on gold. The reactivity of the [Ru-(ttpy)2]2+ core is modified between soln. and the self-assembled monolayer (SAM) structure. Whereas in soln. under irradn. (2) is not oxidized by ArN2+, a cathodic photocurrent generation is obtained from a SAM of (4) with ArN2+ in soln. A bilayer assembly combining (4) as a photoactive unit and (3) as an electron transport relay has been obtained on a gold electrode by a two-step process: A self-assembled monolayer (SAM) of (3) is immobilized on gold, followed by the covalent attachment of (4) via an electroinduced S-S bond formation. A stable cathodic photocurrent is obsd. under visible irradn. when the potential applied to the electrode is fixed at 0.4 V vs Ag/AgNO3 10-2 M. The system achieves the uphill transport of electron of 0.8 eV. [on SciFinder(R)]