Photoinduced ligand dissociation follows reverse energy gap law: nitrile photodissociation from low energy MLCT excited states.

A series of Ru(ii)-terpyridine complexes containing electron-donating bidentate ligands are able to effectively photodissociate nitrile ligands using red light. A spectroscopic investigation of these complexes reveal that they follow anti-energy gap law behavior, providing further evidence that population of LF excited states is not necessary for photoinduced nitrile dissociation.