Ruthenium(II)-TPA-diimine complexes, [Ru(TPA)(diimine)]2+ (TPA=tris(2-pyridylmethyl)amine; diimine=2,2'-bipyridine (bpy), 2,2'-bipyrimidine (bpm), 1,10-phenanthroline (phen)) were synthesized and characterized by spectroscopic and crystallographic methods. Their crystal structures demonstrate severe steric hindrance between the TPA and diimine ligands. They exhibit drastic structural changes on heating and photoirradiation at their MLCT bands, which involve partial dissociation of the tetradentate TPA ligand to exhibit a facially tridentate mode accompanied by structural change and solvent coordination to give [Ru(TPA)(diimine)(solvent)]2+ (solvent=acetonitrile, pyridine). The incoming solvent molecules are required to have pi-acceptor character, since sigma-donating solvent molecules do not coordinate. The thermal process is irreversible dissociation to give the solvent-bound complexes, which takes place by an interchange associative mechanism with large negative activation entropies. The photochemical process is a reversible reaction reaching a photostationary state, probably by a dissociative mechanism involving a five-coordinate intermediate to afford the same product as obtained in the thermal reaction. Quantum yields of the forward reactions to give dissociated products were lower than those of the backward reactions to recover the starting complexes. In the photochemical process, the conversions of the forward and backward reactions depend on the absorption coefficients of the starting materials and those of the products at certain wavelength, as well as the quantum yields of those reactions. The reversibility of the motions can be regulated by heating and by photoirradiation at certain wavelength for the recovery process. In the bpm system, we could achieve about 90 % recovery in thermal/photochemical structural interconversion.

A Ru(II) complex having tris(2-pyridylmethl)amine (TPA) and 2,2'-bipyridine (bpy), [Ru(TPA)(bpy)]X(2) (X = ClO(4), PF(6)), exhibited a severe distortion of the coordination of the axial pyridine moiety of TPA due to steric hindrance. The complex showed interesting dissociation-binding behavior of the axial pyridine arm to form a solvent adduct with TPA ligation in a unique meridional tridentate fashion. The complex undergoes thermal dissociation to form solvent-coordinated species via an S(N)2-like mechanism with activation energy of 117 kJ/mol. In contrast, the complex showed reversible photochemical dissociation and rebinding via an S(N)1-like mechanism by MLCT irradiation. The photochemical dissociation was accelerated approximately 200-fold faster than the thermal process. The dissociation process involves selective binding behavior toward external ligands (solvents) with pi-acceptor character, which is indispensable, and no sigma-donating molecules could bind to the Ru(II) center. The guest molecule can be released upon photoirradiation after its thermal binding.

Ruthenium(II)-pterin complexes were prepared using tetradentate and tripodal tris(2-pyridylmethyl)amine (TPA) and tris(5-methyl-2-pyridylmethyl)amine (5-Me3-TPA) as auxiliary ligands together with 2-(N,N-dimethyl)-6,7-dimethylpterin (Hdmdmp) and 6,7-dimethylpterin (Hdmp) as pterin derivatives for ligands. Characterization was made by spectroscopic methods, X-ray crystallography, and electrochemical measurements. The pterin ligands coordinated to the ruthenium centers as monoanionic bidentate ligands via the 4-oxygen of the pyrimidinone moiety and the 5-nitrogen of the pyrazine parts. The striking feature is that the coordinated dmp- ligand exhibits a quinonoid structure rather than a deprotonated biopterin structure, showing a short C-N bond length for the 2-amino group. Those complexes exhibit reversible two-step protonation for both pterin derivatives coordinated to the ruthenium centers to give a drastic spectral change in the UV-vis spectroscopy. Doubly protonated Ru(II)-pterin complexes were stabilized by pi-back-bonding interaction and exhibited clear and reversible proton-coupled electron transfer (PCET) to give ruthenium-coordinated neutral monohydropterin radicals as intermediates of PCET processes. Those ESR spectra indicate that the unpaired electron delocalizes onto the PCET region (N5-C6-C7-N8) of the pyrazine moiety.

A combination of several surface etching techniques and a superprecise polishing process was used to remove subsurface damage from fused silica surface. The effect of subsurface damage removal on laser-damage resistance was determined by measuring the laser-induced damage threshold (LIDT) at 1064 nm, 532 nm, 355 nm and 266 nm. Surface-damage resistance was enhanced as the irradiated laser wavelength shortens. At 266 nm, the greatest advantage was obtained from virtually subsurface removed surfaces. The surface LIDT improved 2.8-fold compared with that of conventionally polished fused silica surfaces.