Physicochemical properties of Ru(bpy)32+ entrapped in silicate bulks and fiber thin films prepared by the sol–gel method

Silicate porous xerogels doped with ruthenium bipyridine (Ru(bpy)32+) complex have been obtained in the bulk form and in thin films on optical fibers. The hypsochromic shifts in the absorption and emission maxima are accompanied by fourfold increase in the lifetimes of the entrapped complex. The temperature-dependent lifetimes reveal that silicate xerogels induce two competing thermally activated processes in the excited state decay of the immobilized complex. The excited state lifetimes of the doped bulk xerogels and the fibers coated with thin films containing Ru(bpy)32+ are virtually identical to those obtained for the fibers coated with additional gas-impermeable layers.