Light-driven electron injection from a biotinylated triarylamine donor to [Ru(diimine)3]2+-labeled streptavidin

Electron transfer from a biotinylated electron donor to photochemically generated Ru(III) complexes covalently anchored to streptavidin is demonstrated by means of time-resolved laser spectroscopy. Through site-selective mutagenesis, a single cysteine residue was engineered at four different positions on streptavidin, and a Ru(II) tris-diimine complex was then bioconjugated to the exposed cysteines. A biotinylated triarylamine electron donor was added to the Ru(II)-modified streptavidins to afford dyads localized within a streptavidin host. The resulting systems were subjected to electron transfer studies. In some of the explored mutants, the phototriggered electron transfer between triarylamine and Ru(III) is complete within 10 ns, thus highlighting the potential of such artificial metalloenzymes to perform photoredox catalysis.