Behavior of Ruthenium Trisbipyridine-Anthraquinone Conjugates Connected with Alkyl Spacers in Homogeneous and Microheterogeneous Media

Article abstract of DOI:10.1246/bcsj.70.2077

A series of mononuclear Ru trisbypiridine complexes connected to an anthraquinone unit by a flexible alkyl chain of varying lengths and a bolaamphiphilic dinuclear ruthenium complex bearing an anthraquinone unit in the middle of alkyl chain spacers were synthesized. Their conformational preference in CH₃CN and in dihexadecyl phosphate vesicles was probed by utilizing the intramolecular electron-transfer quenching of the metal-to-ligand charge-transfer excited state of the Ru center by the appended quinone moiety. The length of the alkyl chain spacer had little effect on the quenching efficiency in either medium. A marked difference in the quenching behavior was observed only in the case of the dinuclear Ru complex in vesicles. These results indicate that the bolaamphiphilic structure is necessary and effective for the set of immobilized molecules to take a stretched conformation spanning a bilayer membrane.