Orientation effect of enhanced intersystem crossing in copper(II) porphyrin-free base porphyrin dimers

Light-induced hole transfer in a hypervalent phosphorus(V) octaethylporphyrin bearing an axially linked bis(ethylenedithio)tetrathiafulvalene

A phosphorus(V) porphyrin bearing an axially linked bis(ethylenedithio)tetrathiafulvalene, dyad 1, and its radical cation phosphorus(V) porphyrin- O-CH2 -(bis(ethylenedithio)tetrathiafulvalene)+•, dyad 2, have been synthesized and studied as an electron hole donor-acceptor system. The absorption spectrum of dyad 1 does not show evidence for electronic coupling between the porphyrin and the bis(ethylenedithio)tetrathiafulvalene (BEDT-TTF) moieties. However, the steady-state fluorescence of the porphyrin chromophore is quantitatively quenched and its transient fluorescence lifetime is shortened compared to a reference compound in which the BEDT-TTF moiety is replaced by a methoxy group. Chemical oxidation of the BEDT-TTF moiety in dyad 1 to give dyad 2 results in recovery of the fluorescence intensity. This behavior suggests that the fluorescence quenching in dyad 1 is the result of intramolecular hole transfer from the the excited porphyrin to the BEDT-TTF moiety. The occurence of hole transfer in dyad 1 is confirmed by freeze-trapping and time-resolved electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) measurements. The freeze-trapping EPR experiments show that steady-state irradiation of the complex leads to accumulation of its radical cation (dyad 2) while the transient EPR measurements at 5 °C show that flash irradiation of dyad 1 results in formation of a radical-ion pair with a lifetime of at least 300 ns. The triplet state of the porphyrin, which is formed by intersystem crossing and gives a strong transient EPR spectrum in the reference compound, is not observed for dyad 1. Together, the fluorescence quenching and the polarization pattern of the radical pair suggest that the hole transfer occurs from the excited singlet state of the porphyrin with high efficiency.

Charge Shift and Triplet State Formation in the 9-Mesityl-10-methylacridinium Cation

The target donor-acceptor compound forms an acridinium-like, locally excited (LE) singlet state on illumination with blue or near-UV light. This LE state undergoes rapid charge transfer from the acridinium ion to the orthogonally sited mesityl group in polar solution. The resultant charge-transfer (CT) state fluoresces in modest yield and decays on the nanosecond time scale. The LE and CT states reside in thermal equilibrium at ambient temperature; decay of both states is weakly activated in fluid solution, but decay of the CT state is activationless in a glassy matrix. Analysis of the fluorescence spectrum allows precise location of the relevant energy levels. Intersystem crossing competes with radiative and nonradiative decay of the CT state such that an acridinium-like, locally excited triplet state is formed in both fluid solution and a glassy matrix. Phosphorescence spectra position the triplet energy well below that of the CT state. The triplet decays via first-order kinetics with a lifetime of ca. 30 micros at room temperature in the absence of oxygen but survives for ca. 5 ms in an ethanol glass at 77 K. The quantum yield for formation of the LE triplet state is 0.38 but increases by a factor of 2.3-fold in the presence of iodomethane. The triplet reacts with molecular oxygen to produce singlet molecular oxygen in high quantum yield. In sharp contradiction to a recent literature report, there is no spectroscopic evidence to indicate the presence of an unusually long-lived CT state.

Triplet-Triplet Energy Transfer Controlled by the Donor-Acceptor Distance in Rigidly Held Palladium-Containing Cofacial Bisporphyrins

Eleven new complexes, including mono-, heterobi-, and homobimetallic cofacial bisporphyrins, (Pd)H2DPS, (M)H2DPX, (M)H2DPB, (PdZn)DPS, (PdZn)DPX, (Pt)2DPX, (M)2DPB (M = Pd, Pt), and (Pt)P (DPS4- = 4,6-bis[5-(2,8,13,17-tetraethyl-3,7,12,18-tetramethylporphyrinyl)]dibenzothiophene tetraanion, DPX(4-) = 4,5-bis[5-(2,8,13,17-tetraethyl-3,7,12,18-tetramethylporphyrinyl)]-9,9-dimethylxanthene tetraanion, DPB4- = 1,8-bis[5-(2,8,13,17-tetraethyl-3,7,12,18-tetramethylporphyrinyl)]biphenylene tetraanion, P2- = 5-phenyl-2,8,13,17-tetraethyl-3,7,12,18-tetramethylporphyrin dianion) have been synthesized and characterized. The photophysical properties of the donor (M)P (M=Pd or Pt, P=porphyrin chromophore) and the acceptor (free base H(2)P or (Zn)P) depend on the C(meso)-C(meso) distance and the presence of a heavy atom such as Pd(II) or Pt(II). The data were compared with those for the known compounds (Pd)2DPS, (Pd)2DPX, H4DPS, H4DPX, H4DPB, (Pd)P, (Zn)P, and H(2)P. The rate constants for triplet-triplet energy transfer (k(ET)) were measured for the heterobimetallic (PdZn) and monometallic [(M)H2] derivatives (M=Pd, Pt). The fluorescence lifetimes (Deltatau(F)) of the acceptors decrease as a result of the heavy-atom effect, and vary as follows: (Pd)H2DPS<<(Pd)H2DPX approximately (Pd)H2DPB. The k(ET) values calculated according to the equation k(ET)=(1/tau(emi)-1/tau(emi) (0)), where tau(emi) (0) is the emission lifetime of the homobimetallic bisporphyrins (no ET occurs), are equal to 0, 247+/-57 and 133+/-52 s(-1) for DPS, DPX, and DPB, respectively, in the (Pd)H(2) series. These measurements allowed the range of distance over which the Dexter mechanism for T(1)-T(1) energy transfer ceases to operate to be determined. This distance is somewhere between 4.3 and 6.3 A, in agreement with our recent findings on singlet-singlet energy transfer. During the course of this study, the X-ray crystal structure for (Pd)H2DPX was obtained; triclinic (P1), a = 11.1016(1), b = 14.9868(2), c = 20.6786(3) A, alpha = 102.091(1), beta = 100.587(1), gamma = 101.817(1) degrees , V = 3199.19(7) A(3), Z = 2.

Intersystem Crossing versus Electron Transfer in Porphyrin-Based Donor−Bridge−Acceptor Systems: Influence of a Paramagnetic Species

We have investigated how the spin state of an acceptor influences the photophysical processes in a donor-bridge-acceptor (D-B-A) system. The system of choice has zinc porphyrin as the electron donor and high- or low-spin iron(III) porphyrin as the acceptor. The spin state of the acceptor porphyrin is switched simply by coordinating imidazole ligands to the metal center. The D-A center-center distance is 26 A, and the bridging chromophore varies from pi-conjugated to a sigma-bonded system. The presence of a high-spin iron(III) porphyrin in such systems has previously been shown to significantly enhance intersystem crossing in the remote zinc porphyrin donor, whereas no significant electron transfer to the iron porphyrin acceptor was observed, even though the thermodynamics would allow for photoinduced electron transfer. Here, we demonstrate that by switching the acceptor to a low-spin state, the dominating photophysical process is drastically changed; the low-spin system shows long-range electron transfer on the picosecond time-scale, and intersystem crossing occurs at its "normal" rate.

Electron spin polarization of the excited quartet state of strongly coupled triplet–doublet spin systems

The electron spin polarization associated with electronic relaxation in molecules with trip-quartet and trip-doublet excited states is calculated. Such molecules typically relax to the lowest trip-quartet state via intersystem crossing from the trip doublet, and it is shown that when spin-orbit coupling provides the main mechanism for this relaxation pathway it leads to spin polarization of the trip quartet. Analytical expressions for this polarization are derived using first- and second-order perturbation theory and are used to calculate powder spectra for typical sets of magnetic parameters. It is shown that both net and multiplet contributions to the polarization occur and that these can be separated in the spectrum as a result of the different orientation dependences of the +/-1/2<-->+/-3/2 and +1/2<-->-1/2 transitions. The net polarization is found to be localized primarily in the center of the spectrum, while the multiplet contribution dominates in the outer wings. Despite the fact that the multiplet polarization is much stronger than the net polarization for individual orientations of the spin system, the difference in orientation dependence of the transitions leads to comparable amplitudes for the two contributions in the powder spectrum. The influence of this difference on the line shape is investigated in simulations of partially ordered samples. Because the initial nonpolarized state of the spin system is not conserved for the proposed mechanism, the net polarization can survive in the doublet ground state following electronic relaxation of the triplet part of the system.

Influence of negatively charged interfaces on the ground and excited state properties of methylene blue

Properties of the ground and excited states of methylene blue (MB) were studied in negatively charged vesicles, normal and reverse micelles and sodium chloride solutions. All these systems induce dimer formation as attested by the appearance of the dimer band in the absorption spectra (lamdaD approximately 600 nm). In reverse micelles the dimerization constant (KD) corrected for the aqueous pseudophase volume fraction is two-three orders of magnitude smaller than KD of MB in water, and it does not change when W0 is increased from 0.5 to 10. Differences in the fluorescence intensity as a function of dimer-monomer ratio as well as in the resonance light scattering spectra indicate that distinct types of dimers are induced in sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) micelles and aerosol-OT (sodium dioctyl sulfoxinate, AOT) reversed micelles. The properties of the photoinduced transient species of MB in these systems were studied by time-resolved near infrared (NIR) emission (efficiency of singlet oxygen generation), by laser flash photolysis (transient spectra, yield and decay rate of triplets) and by thermal lensing (amount of heat deposited in the medium). The competition between electron transfer (dye*-dye) and energy transfer (dye*-O2) reactions was accessed as a function of the dimer-monomer ratio. The lower yield of electron transfer observed for dimers in AOT reverse micelles and intact vesicles compared with SDS micelles and frozen vesicles at similar dimer-monomer ratios is related with the different types of aggregates induced by each interface.