Abstract
The synthesis and photophysical characterization of new rhodium complexes with potential as long lifetime fluorescent probes of DNA structure and dynamics is reported. The fluorescent ligands in these complexes we re 1-aminopyrene ligands. Definitive structural characterization of these complexes awaits the results of elemental analysis. Fluorescence spectra for the complexes were recorded via standard methods, and fluorescence lifetimes were measured with a pulsed nitrogen laser lifetime apparatus. The lifetimes of the complexes were found to be shorter than that of 1-aminopyrene when methanol is the solvent. Reasons for this lifetime shortening, as well as for the frequency-domain spectral characteristics of the complexes, are explored in terms of the perturbation of the 1-aminopyrene electronic structure caused by complexation to a metal center.