Photophysics and Photochemistry of Organometallic Rhenium Diimine Complexes

This review describes the photophysics and photochemistry of various diimine rhenium(I) tricarbonyl complexes. The exceptionally diverse photophysical behavior of these complexes is largely dependent on the nature of their lowest excited states. These excited states and the excited-state characteristics can be easily changed by varying the substituents on either the diimine ligands or the ancillary ligands. The prolificacy of the photophysical and photochemical properties of diimine rhenium(l) tricarbonyl complexes allows for a range of important applications such as light-emitting devices, sensors, probes for photo-polymerization, optical switches, nonlinear optical materials, radiopharmaceuticals, carbon dioxide reduction and supramolecular chemistry. We have covered the studies that best characterize the state of the field as far as the most significant fundamental photochemical advances, and the applications of the photochemistry of rhenium complexes.