Sabuzi F, Stefanelli M, Monti D, Conte V, Galloni P. Amphiphilic Porphyrin Aggregates: A DFT Investigation.
MOLECULES (BASEL, SWITZERLAND) 2019;
25:molecules25010133. [PMID:
31905739 PMCID:
PMC6982950 DOI:
10.3390/molecules25010133]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/03/2019] [Revised: 12/16/2019] [Accepted: 12/26/2019] [Indexed: 12/26/2022]
Abstract
Owing to the attractive potential applications of porphyrin assemblies in photocatalysis, sensors, and material science, studies presently concerning porphyrin aggregation are widely diffused. π–π stacking, H-bonding, metal coordination, hydrophobic effect, and electrostatic forces usually drive porphyrin interaction in solution. However, theoretical studies of such phenomena are still limited. Therefore, a computational examination of the different porphyrin aggregation approaches is proposed here, taking into account amphiphilic [5-{4-(3-trimethylammonium)propyloxyphenyl}-10,15,20-triphenylporphyrin] chloride, whose aggregation behavior has been previously experimentally investigated. Different functionals have been adopted to investigate the porphyrin dimeric species, considering long-range interactions. Geometry optimization has been performed, showing that for the compound under analysis, H-type and cation–π dimers are the most favored structures that likely co-exist in aqueous solution. Of note, frontier orbital delocalization showed an interesting interaction between the porphyrin units in the dimer at the supramolecular level.
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