Synthesis and Properties of Acridine and Acridinium Dye Functionalized Bis(terpyridine) Ruthenium(II) Complexes

We present first principle studies on the rational design of an acridine/N‐methylacridinium dye (Acr/MeAcr+) substituted terpyridine ligand to investigate if these chromophores can act as triplet‐energy storage units in bis(terpyridine) ruthenium(II) complexes. We studied the influence of the dye form (Acr/MeAcr+) as well as the interconnecting linker unit (none, 4‐phenyl, or 5‐thien‐2‐yl) and investigated these aspects by steady‐state/time‐resolved spectroscopy, cyclic voltammetry, X‐ray structure analysis, and DFT calculations. This publication describes a rationally designed class of acridine/N‐methylacridinium dye (Acr/MeAcr+) substituted terpyridine ligands in order to investigate if these chromophores can act as triplet‐energy storage units in bis(terpyridine) ruthenium(II) complexes.