Electrochemiluminescence of Ruthenium (Ii) Bis-Bipyridine Acetylacetonate Type Complexes

Electrogenerated chemiluminescence, or electrochemiluminescence (ECL), is the process of generating the light emission from a system by applying a voltage. ECL is used today in many analytical and clinical techniques. ECL probes and labels allow for non-radioactive detection in clinical applications as well as immunoassays, and oligolabelling. Ruthenium (II) bipyridine acetylacetonate type complexes have been suggested as good candidates for electrochemical probes and labels, this research would suggest these complexes would act as good ECL probes and labels. The purpose of this research was to investigate these Ruthenium (II) bipyridine acetylacetonate type complexes for their possible use as ECL probes and labels. The complexes were synthesized by substituting one bipyridine from Tris(2,2\u27-bipyridyl)ruthenium(II) with an acetylacetone (acac) derivative. The substitution resulted in the complexes with the molecular structure of [Ru(bpy)₂(L)]PF₆) where L was the acetylacetone derivative. Five complexes were synthesized: [Ru(bpy)₂dibenzoylmethane](PF₆), [Ru(bpy)₂4,4,4-trifluoro-1-phenyl-1.3-butanedione](PF₆), [Ru(bpy)₂ibenzoylacetone](PF₆), [Ru(bpy)₂thenoyltrifluroacetone](PF₆), [Ru(bpy)₂1,1,1-trifluoro-2-4-pentandione](PF₆). Following synthesis the compounds were characterized using UV-Vis spectroscopy, fluorescence spectroscopy, electrochemistry, ECL, and ECL spectra. The results from this research determined all five compounds yielded UV-Vis, Fluorescence, Electrochemistry, and ECL data that wold be useful in analytical applications including ECL probes and labels. Also, the ligands had some effect on the ECL efficiency of the compounds, however there was no direct correlation to substituent effects of electron withdrawing or donating groups. From these results it was determined that it may be possible that these Ruthenium (II) bipyridine acetylacetonate type complexes could be used as viable ECL probes and labels