A screened potential molecular‐orbital calculation of the π‐electron systems of metalloporphin, metallochlorin, and metallobacteriochlorin

Magnetic Circular Dichroism of Porphyrins Containing M = Ca, Ni, and Zn. A Computational Study Based on Time-Dependent Density Functional Theory

A theoretical study is presented on the magnetic circular dichroism (MCD) exhibited by the porphyrin complexes MP (M = Mg,Ni,Zn), MTPP (M = Mg,Ni,Zn), and NiOEP, where P = porphyrin, TPP = tetraphenylporphyrin, and OEP = octaethylporphyrin. The study makes use of a newly implemented method for the calculation of A and B terms from the theory of MCD and is based on time-dependent density functional theory (TD-DFT). It is shown that the MCD spectrum is dominated by a single positive A term in the Q-band region in agreement with experiment where available. The band can be fully explained as the first transition in Gouterman's four-orbital model for the type of porphyrins studied here. For the Soret band, the experimental MCD spectrum appears as a single positive A term. This is also what is found computationally for NiP and NiTPP, where the second transition in Gouterman's four-orbital model give rise to a positive A term. However, for the remaining systems, the simulated MCD spectrum is actually due to two B terms that have the appearance of one positive pseudo A term. The two B terms appear because the second Gouterman state is coupled strongly to a second excited state (b(2u) --> 2e(g)) of nearly the same energy by the external magnetic field.

Quantum-chemical investigation of the electroabsorption spectra of directly meso-meso-linked porphyrin arrays: essential role of charge-transfer excited states accidentally overlapping with soret bands

The electroabsorption (EA) spectra of directly meso-meso-linked porphyrin arrays (Zn, n = 1-3) have been investigated by means of the sum-over-states (SOS) approach at the INDO/S-SCI level theory. The experimental EA spectra of Zn (n > or = 2) exhibit an unusual second-derivative line shape at the exciton split low-energy B(x) band in contrast to the first-derivative spectrum of Z1, which is readily ascribed to a quadratic Stark shift of the B (Soret) band. Although the second-derivative line shape is usually attributed to a difference in the permanent dipole moment (Deltamu) between the ground and excited states, it should be vanishing for Zn due to their essentially D(2)(d) or D(2)(h) symmetry. As pointed out in our previous studies, the interporphyrinic charge-transfer (CT) excited states are accidentally overlapping with the excitonic B bands and the present calculations reveal that the B(x) state is strongly coupled via a transition dipole moment with two such CT states. These situations give rise to a quadratic Stark effect on the B(x) band that is intermediate between Stark shift (first derivative) and Stark broadening (second derivative), and play a central role in establishing the anomalous second derivative nature of the EA spectrum. Moreover, based on the comparison between the theoretical and experimental spectra, there must be an additional factor that further enhances the second derivative nature of the EA spectrum of porphyrin arrays. Discussions on this issue including the preliminary investigations on the role of solvent (PMMA)-induced asymmetry are also presented.

Spectroscopic and Computational Studies on the Coordination-Driven Self-Assembly Complexes (ZnL)2 and (NiL)2 [L= Bis(2,4-dimethyldipyrrin-3-yl)methane]

FT-IR, FT-Raman and electronic absorption spectroscopies were utilized in conjunction with density functional theory (DFT) calculations to investigate the ground and excited states of self-assembled dinuclear dimeric helicates (ZnL)2 and (NiL)2 [L = bis(2,4-dimethyldipyrrin-3-yl)methane]. These studies afford a detailed description of the ground-state geometric and electronic structures of (ZnL)2 and (NiL)2 and provide a comparison with similar geometrical metal-porphyrins. The results demonstrate that enlarging the basis set used in the DFT calculations results in an obvious alteration of the calculated bond lengths but negligible alteration of the calculated bond angles. The predicted spectra are in good agreement with the experimental ones with the deviations generally less than 30 cm(-1). In comparison with vibrational spectra of metal-porphyrins, the breathing vibration of the pyrrole ring is shifted by over 100 cm(-1) toward higher wavenumber due to local conjugation of molecular geometry. Time-dependent density functional theory (TD-DFT) provides a good description of the excitation energy. Because of the break in symmetry, the absorption band (corresponding to the Q-band of porphyrin) of (ZnL)2 and (NiL)2 is no longer weak. Local conjugation makes the absorption wavelength of (NiL)2 and (ZnL)2 shift to the blue compared with those of NiP and ZnP.

A Theoretical Study on the Third-Order Nonlinear Optical Properties of π-Conjugated Linear Porphyrin Arrays

By using the Pariser-Parr-Pople (PPP) theory, the second hyperpolarizabilities (gamma) have been calculated for various pi-conjugated porphyrin arrays including "porphyrin tapes": the meso-beta doubly linked porphyrin array Dn and the meso-meso, beta-beta, beta-beta triply linked array Tn. The validity of the PPP theory is checked via a comparison with both the ab initio Hartree-Fock and the B3LYP theories in the case of porphyrin monomers and dimers. It is found that Dn and especially Tn exhibit much more remarkable evolution of gamma/n along with an increasing number of porphyrin units n compared with the butadiyne-bridged array, Yn. As a result, the static third-order susceptibilities chi((3)) of Dn and Tn are expected to be 1 and 3 orders of magnitude larger than that of Yn in the limit n --> infinity, and these advantages of porphyrin tapes become more prominent by taking into account geometrical relaxations of porphyrin units in the arrays. The structure-property relationship in various conjugated polymers including porphyrin arrays is interpreted on the basis of the scaling behaviors of chi((1)) and chi((3)) with the effective conjugation length (ECL) as well as the reciprocal HOMO-LUMO energy gap (1/E(g)). In particular, from the master plot of chi((3)) (and even chi((1))) versus 1/E(g), the pi-conjugation of Tn is noted to indeed be exceptional, because its large susceptibilities cannot be expected from the scaling behavior of ordinary one-dimensional conjugated systems. We also point out that the theory of scaling relationship, chi((3)) approximately 1/E(g)(x)(), is significantly improved by taking into account electron-electron interactions based on the comparison with experiments.

Photo Processes on Self-Associated Cationic Porphyrins and Plastocyanin Complexes 1. Ligation of Plastocyanin Tyrosine 83 onto Metalloporphyrins and Electron-Transfer Fluorescence Quenching

The spectroscopic properties of the self-associated complexes formed between the anionic surface docking site of spinach plastocyanin and the cationic metalloporphyrins, in which the tyrosine 83 (Y83) moiety is placed just below the docking site, tetrakis(N-methyl-4-pyridyl)porphyrin (Pd(II)TMPyP(4+) and Zn(II)TMPyP(4+)), have been studied and reported herein. The fluorescence quenching phenomenon of the self-assembled complex of Zn(II)TMPyP(4+)/plastocyanin has also been discovered. The observed red-shifting of the Soret and Q-bands of the UV-visible spectra, ca. 9 nm for Pd(II)TMPyP(4+)/plastocyanin and ca. 6 nm for the Zn(II)TMPyP(4+)/plastocyanin complexes, was explained in terms of exciton theory coupled with the Gouterman model. Thus, the hydroxyphenyl terminus of the Y83 residue of the self-associated plastocyanin/cationic porphyrin complexes was implicated in the charge-transfer ligation with the central metal atoms of these metalloporphyrins. Moreover, ground-state spectrometric-binding studies between Pd(II)TMPyP(4+) and the Y83 mutant plastocyanin (Y83F-PC) system proved that Y83 moiety of plastocyanin played a critical role in the formation of such ion-pair complexes. Difference absorption spectra and the Job's plots showed that the electrostatic attractions between the cationic porphyrins and the anionic patch of plastocyanin, bearing the nearby Y83 residue, led to the predominant formation of a self-associated 1:1 complex in the ground-state with significantly high binding constants (K = (8.0 +/- 1.1) x 10(5) M(-1) and (2.7 +/- 0.8) x 10(6) M(-1) for Pd(II)TMPyP(4+) and zinc variant, respectively) in low ionic strength buffer, 1 mM KCl and 1 mM phosphate buffer (pH 7.4). Molecular modeling calculations supported the formation of a 1:1 self-associated complex between the porphyrin and plastocyanin with an average distance of ca. 9 A between the centers of mass of the porphyrin and Y83 positioned just behind the anionic surface docking site on the protein surface. The photoexcited singlet state of Zn(II)TMPyP(4+) was quenched by the Y83 residue of the self-associated plastocyanin in a static mechanism as evidenced by steady-state and time-resolved fluorescence experiments. Even when all the porphyrin was complexed (more than 97%), significant residual fluorescence from the complex was observed such that the amplitude of quenching of the singlet state of uncomplexed species was enormously obscured.

Effects of fluorination on electronic and excited states of fused zinc oligoporphyrins

Density functional theory (DFT) has been applied to study the effect of fluorination on the electronic and excited states of fused zinc oligoporphyrins in the search for new functionalizing materials, such as n-type organic semiconductors. The excitation spectra of meso-tetrafluoro, beta-octafluoro, and perfluoro zinc porphyrins, and their triply meso-meso-, beta-beta, and beta-beta-linked fluorinated zinc oligoporphyrins were systematically examined using the time-dependent DFT method. The effect of the perfluorination on the zinc porphyrin (ZnP) causes the maximum 1.12 eV and 1.42 eV drops for the highest occupied and lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (HOMO and LUMO, respectively) levels, respectively. The electronic and excitation features of the fluorinated ZnPs are almost similar to the unfluorinated ones. However, the large antibonding contribution of the meso-fluorines disturbs the stabilization of the HOMO, resulting in a more effective reduction of both the HOMO-LUMO gaps and the lowest Q excitation energies with the increasing number of porphyrins compared to the unfluorination and the other types of fluorinations. It is found that the infinite fused fluorinated ZnP tapes with narrow gap (approximately = 0.1 eV-0.2 eV) as predicted by using the periodic-DFT level are slightly inferior to the near-zero gap semimetallic unfluorinated ZnP tape as a conducting molecular wire. The combination of the condensation and the meso- and/or beta-fluorination of ZnP can finely tune the LUMO level to the Fermi level of the electrodes for fabrication of n-type conducting materials. The fused fluoro-oligoporphyrins may then become new n-type organic semiconductors, provided they are well crystallized with a high electron mobility, such as the recently synthesized perfluoropentacene.

Photophysical properties of porphyrin tapes

The novel fused Zn(II)porphyrin arrays (Tn, porphyrin tapes) in which the porphyrin macrocycles are triply linked at meso-meso, beta-beta, beta-beta positions have been investigated by steady-state and time-resolved spectroscopic measurements along with theoretical MO calculations. The absorption spectra of the porphyrin tapes show a systematic downshift to the IR region as the number of porphyrin pigments increases in the arrays. The fused porphyrin arrays exhibit a rapid formation of the lowest excited states (for T2, approximately 500 fs) via fast internal conversion processes upon photoexcitation at 400 nm (Soret bands), which is much faster than the internal conversion process of approximately 1.2 ps observed for a monomeric Zn(II)porphyrin. The relaxation dynamics of the lowest excited states of the porphyrin tapes were accelerated from approximately 4.5 ps for the T2 dimer to approximately 0.3 ps for the T6 hexamer as the number of porphyrin units increases, being explained well by the energy gap law. The overall photophysical properties of the porphyrin tapes were observed to be in a sharp contrast to those of the orthogonal porphyrin arrays. The PPP-SCI calculated charge-transfer probability indicates that the lowest excited state of the porphyrin tapes (Tn) resembles a Wannier-type exciton closely, whereas the lowest excited state of the directly linked porphyrin arrays can be considered as a Frenkel-type exciton. Conclusively, these unique photophysical properties of the porphyrin tapes have aroused much interest in the fundamental photophysics of large flat organic molecules as well as in the possible applications as electric wires, IR sensors, and nonlinear optical materials.

Intruder state avoidance multireference Møller-Plesset perturbation theory

A new perturbation approach is proposed that enhances the low-order, perturbative convergence by modifying the zeroth-order Hamiltonian in a manner that enlarges any small-energy denominators that may otherwise appear in the perturbative expansion. This intruder state avoidance (ISA) method can be used in conjunction with any perturbative approach, but is most applicable to cases where small energy denominators arise from orthogonal-space states-so-called intruder states-that should, under normal circumstances, make a negligible contribution to the target state of interests. This ISA method is used with multireference Møller-Plesset (MRMP) perturbation theory on potential energy curves that are otherwise plagued by singularities when treated with (conventional) MRMP; calculation are performed on the 1(3)Sigma(-)(u) state of O(2); and the 2(1)Delta, 3(1)Delta, 2(3)Delta, and 3(3)Delta states of AgH. This approach is also applied to other calculations where MRMP is influenced by intruder states; calculations are performed on the (3)Pi(u) state of N(2), the (3)Pi state of CO, and the 2(1)A' state of formamide. A number of calculations are also performed to illustrate that this approach has little or no effect on MRMP when intruder states are not present in perturbative calculations; vertical excitation energies are computed for the low-lying states of N(2), C(2), CO, formamide, and benzene; the adiabatic (1)A(1)-(3)B(1) energy separation in CH(2), and the spectroscopic parameters of O(2) are also calculated. Vertical excitation energies are also performed on the Q and B bands states of free-base, chlorin, and zinc-chlorin porphyrin, where somewhat larger couplings exists, and-as anticipated-a larger deviation is found between MRMP and ISA-MRMP.