Prolonged luminescence lifetimes of Ru(ii) complexes via the multichromophore approach: the excited-state storage element can be on a ligand not involved in the MLCT emitting state.

A novel series of ruthenium terpyridine complexes with bichromophoric units separated by more than 1 nm display an extraordinary enhancement of their luminescence lifetimes when compared to the parent Ru(tpy)2(2+) chromophore (tpy = 2,2':6',2"-terpyridine). Copyright 2004 The Royal Society of Chemistry