Intra- and intermolecular interaction ECL study of novel ruthenium tris-bipyridyl complexes with different amine reductants

A series of ruthenium(II) tris-bipyridyl complexes covalently linked with different amine reductants such as tripropylamine (TPrA), ethanolamine and diethanolamine for an electrochemiluminescence (ECL) system have been synthesized. Their ECL property at different working electrodes has been studied with and without the presence of TPrA, triethanolamine (TEOA) and 2-(dibutylamino) ethanol (DBAE) as the coreactant, respectively. The results demonstrate that the conjugated ruthenium complex alone can generate ECL through intramolecular interaction at a relatively low concentration, while with intermolecular interaction the ECL intensity increases progressively and becomes increasingly dominant with increasing complex concentration. For the coreactant system ECL, the amine coreactant needed for the conjugate complexes can be significantly lowered in comparison with that of the well known [Ru(bpy)3]2+/TPrA system. One amine substituent is better for the system in order to diminish the steric hindrance, and the intramolecular amine reductant employed should have a similar structure with that of the additive amine coreactant to achieve a good ECL performance, which can pave a new route to further improving the ECL efficiency and increase the sensitivity of detection through combining both intra- and intermolecular interaction.