One-electron reduction of tris(bipyridyl) complexes of cobalt(III) and chromium(III)

Abstract

The reaction of e^–_aq with Co(bipy)₃³⁺ and Cr(bipy)₃³⁺ produces an intense transient absorption at 300 nm which decays via first-order kinetics with k= 3·5 s^–1; the intermediates are not excited spin states of the metal centres nor can they be described simply as radical anions of the pyridyl ligands.