Photo-CIDNP Reveals Different Protonation Sites Depending on the Primary Step of the Photoinduced Electron-/Proton-Transfer Process with Ru(II) Polyazaaromatic Complexes

The excited-state quenching of [Ru­(TAP)₂(HAT)]²⁺ (TAP = 1,4,5,8-tetraazaphenanthrene, HAT= 1,4,5,8,9,12-hexaazatriphenylene) by hydroquinone (H₂Q), N-acetyl-tyrosine (N-Ac-Tyr) or guanosine-5′-monophosphate (GMP) was investigated at various pH values. The quenching occurs via electron/proton transfer, as evidenced by transient absorption spectroscopy and confirmed by ¹H photochemically induced dynamic nuclear polarization (photo-CIDNP). Reductive quenching also occurs in strongly acidic solution despite a much shorter lifetime of the protonated excited-state complex. Photo-CIDNP revealed a different mechanism at low pH, involving protonation before electron transfer and yielding a distinct protonated monoreduced complex. The experimental photo-CIDNP patterns are consistent with density functional theory calculations. This work highlights the power of ¹H photo-CIDNP for characterizing, at the atomic level, transient species involved in electron-transfer processes.