Electrogenerated chemiluminescence from osmium(II) polypyridine carbonyl chloride systems

The spectroscopy, electrochemistry and electrogenerated chemiluminescence (ECL) of four osmium(II) phenanthroline carbonyl chloride complexes are reported. Three of these compounds also contain diphosphine chelating ligands. ECL is generated in acetonitrile solutions with tri-n-propylamine (TPrA) as an oxidative-reductive coreactant. ECL efficiencies (?_ecl = photons emitted per redox event) between 0.011 and 0.13 were obtained in air saturated and deoxygenated solutions with Ru(bpy)₃²⁺ (bpy = 2,2′-bipyridine) as a relative standard (?_ecl = 1). The ECL intensity peaks at a potential corresponding to oxidation of both TPrA and the osmium systems, while ECL spectra (obtained using absorption filters) are similar to photoluminescence spectra, indicating that emission is from the excited states of the osmium complexes.