Gigantic Magnetic Field Effect on the Long-Lived Intermolecular Charge-Separated State Created at the Nonionic Bilayer Membrane

Geometrization for Energy Levels of Isotropic Hyperfine Hamiltonian Block and Related Central Spin Problems for an Arbitrarily Complex Set of Spin-1/2 Nuclei

Description of interacting spin systems relies on understanding the spectral properties of the corresponding spin Hamiltonians. However, the eigenvalue problems arising here lead to algebraic problems too complex to be analytically tractable. This is already the case for the simplest nontrivial (Kmax−1) block for an isotropic hyperfine Hamiltonian for a radical with spin-12 nuclei, where n nuclei produce an n-th order algebraic equation with n independent parameters. Systems described by such blocks are now physically realizable, e.g., as radicals or radical pairs with polarized nuclear spins, appear as closed subensembles in more general radical settings, and have numerous counterparts in related central spin problems. We provide a simple geometrization of energy levels in this case: given n spin-12 nuclei with arbitrary positive couplings ai, take an n-dimensional hyper-ellipsoid with semiaxes ai, stretch it by a factor of n+1 along the spatial diagonal (1, 1, …, 1), read off the semiaxes of thus produced new hyper-ellipsoid qi, augment the set {qi} with q0=0, and obtain the sought n+1 energies as Ek=−12qk2+14∑iai. This procedure provides a way of seeing things that can only be solved numerically, giving a useful tool to gain insights that complement the numeric simulations usually inevitable here, and shows an intriguing connection to discrete Fourier transform and spectral properties of standard graphs.

Photogenerated Radical Pair between Flavin and a Tryptophan-Containing Transmembrane-Type Peptide in a Large Unilamellar Vesicle

Electron-transfer (ET) reactions in biological systems, such as those with magnetic sensors based on flavoproteins and electron transport at biomembrane interfaces, are interesting and important issues that require understanding. As a model system of flavoproteins in biomimetic environments, we report the dynamics of the radical pair generated by photoinduced ET between riboflavin tetrabutylate (RFTB) and tryptophan (Trp) residues in a transmembrane-type polypeptide, both of which are distributed in a large unilamellar vesicle of 1,2-dimyristoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine. The Trp residues locate near the hydrophilic membrane interface, as confirmed by a dual-fluorescence quenching assay. The fluorescence and transient absorption upon photoexcitation of RFTB indicate that ET from both the singlet and triplet excited states occurs at the hydrophilic interface, whereas the RFTB in the hydrophobic region does not contribute to ET. The ET efficiency and the magnetic field effect (MFE) on the RFTB anion increase significantly above the gel-to-liquid crystal phase transition temperature due to a decrease in microviscosity. The MFE analysis indicates that the radical pair generated from the triplet ET channel exhibits a long lifetime as those in micellar systems due to the strong cage effect of the vesicle.

Effects of the Peripheral Substituents, Central Metal, and Solvent on the Photochemical and Photophysical Properties of 5,15-Diazaporphyrins

Metal complexes of 3,7,13,17-tetrakis(di(4-carboxyphenyl)amino)-5,15-diazaporphyrin (MDAP-COOH; M=Pd, Cu) and their ethyl ester precursors (MDAP-COOEt; M=Pd, Cu) have been synthesized for use as near-infrared (NIR)-light-responsive photosensitizers. Under irradiation with visible or NIR light, PdDAP-COOEt in toluene generated singlet oxygen (¹ O₂ ) with an excellent quantum yield (Φ_Δ =0.99), whereas CuDAP-COOEt exhibited a lower efficiency (Φ_Δ =0.21). The water-soluble Pd^II complex PdDAP-COOH also behaved as a photosensitizer (Φ_Δ =0.20) in a micellar solution. The photophysical properties of these dyes were measured by transient absorption techniques. It was found that the efficiency of the energy transfer from the triplet state of MDAP-COOR (R=Et, H) to the ground state of dioxygen was highly dependent on the peripheral substituents, the central metal, and the solvent. Furthermore, the phototoxicity of PdDAP-COOH toward HeLa cells under irradiation of NIR light (720 nm) was evaluated. As expected, PdDAP-COOH exhibited good photodynamic activity, and control experiments confirmed that ¹ O₂ was generated as the active oxygen species.

Spin-dependent electron transfer dynamics in a platinum-complex-donor-acceptor triad studied by transient-absorption detected magnetic field effect

For realization of efficient organic light-energy conversion systems, controlling the lifetime of photogenerated charge separated states in donor (D)-acceptor (A) molecules is of much importance; the spin dynamics is one of the important controlling factors. We previously reported that the covalently-linked 1,3-bis(2-pyridylimino)-isoindolate platinum (BPIPt)-dimethoxytriphenylamine (D)-naphthaldiimide (A) triad molecule (BPIPt-DA) exhibits a triplet-born long-lived charge separated state (BPIPt-D^•+A^•-), the lifetime of which is significantly increased from 4 µs to 10 µs by an applied magnetic field of 270 mT in room temperature tetrahydrofuran (THF). The purpose of the present study is to clarify detailed dynamics of spin-dependent generation and the decay of BPIPt-D⁺A^-. For this purpose, we measured transient optical absorption (TA) and the TA-detected magnetic field effect (MFE) as functions of temperature and dispersion media. In THF at 183 K, MFE-detected transient spectra of the intermediate BPIPt^•--D^•+A state are observed. We have successfully quantified the recombination loss at this state by a kinetic simulation of MFE without using any reference molecules. The lifetime of the final BPIPt-D^•+A^•- state in a cellulose acetate polymer matrix at room temperature is significantly prolonged to 20 µs at 0 mT and 96 µs at 250 mT compared to those in THF. From the comparison of temperature dependences of the two media, effects of molecular motions on the electronic coupling and the spin relaxation are discussed.