Electrochemiluminescence of iridium(III)/ruthenium(II) complexes with naphthyl tags in solutions and host-guest thin films

Weiyu Qu; Xinrui Yang; Xiaojin Huang; Weiliang Guo; Zhihui Dai

doi:10.1039/d3dt03922f

Electrochemiluminescence of iridium(III)/ruthenium(II) complexes with naphthyl tags in solutions and host-guest thin films

Dalton Trans. 2024 Mar 12;53(11):5284-5290. doi: 10.1039/d3dt03922f.

Authors

Weiyu Qu¹, Xinrui Yang¹, Xiaojin Huang¹, Weiliang Guo¹, Zhihui Dai^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Collaborative Innovation Center of Biomedical Functional Materials and Key Laboratory of Biofunctional Materials of Jiangsu Province, School of Chemistry and Materials Science, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing 210023, China. guowl@njnu.edu.cn.
² School of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Nanjing Tech University, Nanjing 211816, China.

PMID: 38410928
DOI: 10.1039/d3dt03922f

Abstract

Herein we report electrochemiluminescence (ECL) generation from three new iridium(III)/ruthenium(II) (Ir(III)/Ru(II)) complexes with naphthyl (nap) tags in solutions and host-guest thin films. In comparison with its parent structure, the addition of a nap tag to [4-(2-naphthalenyl)-1,10-phenanthroline]bis(2,2'-bipyridine)ruthenium(II) results in a 6.1-fold enhancement in the ECL efficiency. Moreover, the nap tag enables the non-covalent immobilization of Ir(III)/Ru(II) complexes via host-guest interactions. Therefore, a molecular thin film was constructed by hydrophobic effects between the cavity of β-cyclodextrin and the nap tags, which emits stable and strong ECL emission in the presence of tri-n-propylamine (TPrA). These results give a mechanistic insight into ECL generation from (Ir(III)/Ru(II)) complexes with host-guest recognition tags and may help in the development of host-guest thin film-based ECL sensors.