A series of photoactive dyads bearing pyrene and metal (M Ru II ) or Os II ) tris(2,2'-bipyridine) terminals bridged by an ethynylene or Pt II bis(sacetylide) moiety has been synthesized and investigated by transient spectroscopy. Selective excitation into the terminal metal complex is possible in each case and generates the lowest energy, excited triplet state localized on that molecular fragment. For both Os II -based dyads, the triplet state is unperturbed by the appended pyrene unit and the observed photophysical properties can be understood within the framework of the energy-gap law. The triplet state localized on the metal complex in the two Ru II -based dyads is involved in reversible energy transfer with the triplet associated with the pyrene unit, which is situated at slightly lower energy. When the terminal metal complex is a Ru II bis(2,2':6',2''-terpyridyl) fragment, however, the triplet levels are inverted such that the pyrene-like triplet state lies slightly above that of the metal complex. Kinetic spectrophotometry has allowed determination of the various rate constants and energy gaps and, on the basis of nonadiabatic electron-transfer theory, it appears that the central Pt bis(sacetylide) unit is a much inferior electronic conductor than is a simple ethynylene group. Reversible energy transfer of this type greatly prolongs the triplet lifetime of the Ru II tris(2,2'-bipyridyl) fragment. For example, equilibration between the triplet states is achieved within 10 ps for the ethynylenebridged dyad while the equilibrium mixture decays with a lifetime of about 40 ms in deoxygenated acetonitrile at room temperature.