The development of novel iron, cobalt, iridium and ruthenium complexes for the capture and utilization of solar energy

The work reported herein has the ultimate goal of the development of bimetallic complexes which undergo intramolecular energy transfer processes upon absorption of visible irradiation. These compounds could be applicable to solar energy water splitting schemes. Our proposed approach was to couple the two metal centers through a bridging ligand such that there are three components; an antenna, bridging ligand, and reactive center. The antenna serves to absorb visible radiant energy and store it as electronic excited state potential energy. The bridging ligand then transfers this excited state potential energy to the remote metal center which sensitizes the reactive center to undergo a reaction. The reaction of choice is the elimination of molecular hydrogen.;Various Ru(II) and Fe(II) monometallic and multimetal systems have been prepared using the bridging ligands 2,2;In addition, a model reactive center was studied using (Co(bpy)(PEt;In these processes, the energetics of the excited state of an antenna fragment and the reactive state of the reactive center are of utmost importance. These effects were investigated by a quenching study of Fe(bpy)...