Electronic Structure and Triplet-Triplet Energy Transfer in Artificial Photosynthetic Antennas

Revealing the Contest between Triplet-Triplet Exchange and Triplet-Triplet Energy Transfer Coupling in Correlated Triplet Pair States in Singlet Fission

Understanding the separation of the correlated triplet pair state ¹(TT) intermediate is critical for leveraging singlet fission to improve solar cell efficiency. This separation mechanism is dominated by two key interactions: (i) the exchange interaction (K) between the triplets which leads to the spin splitting of the biexciton state into ¹(TT),³(TT) and ⁵(TT) states, and (ii) the triplet-triplet energy transfer integral (t) which enables the formation of the spatially separated (but still spin entangled) state ¹(T···T). We develop a simple ab initio technique to compute both the biexciton exchange (K) and biexciton transfer coupling. Our key findings reveal new conditions for successful correlated triplet pair state dissociation. The biexciton exchange interaction needs to be ferromagnetic or negligible to the triplet energy transfer for favorable dissociation. We also explore the effect of chromophore packing to reveal geometries where these conditions are achieved for tetracene.

Intramolecular charge-transfer state of carotenoids siphonaxanthin and siphonein: function of non-conjugated acyl-oxy group

We used ultrafast transient absorption spectroscopy to study excited-state dynamics of two keto-carotenoids, siphonaxanthin and siphonein. These two carotenoids differ in the presence of dodecanoyl-oxy group in siphonein, which is attached to the C19 carbon on the same side of the molecule as the conjugated keto group. We show that this dodecanoyl-oxy group, though not in conjugation, is still capable of modifying excited state properties. While spectroscopic properties of siphonein and siphonaxanthin are nearly identical in a non-polar solvent, they become markedly different in polar solvents. In a polar solvent, siphonein, having the dodecanoyl-oxy moiety, exhibits less pronounced vibrational bands in the absorption spectrum and has significantly enhanced characteristic features of an intramolecular charge-transfer (ICT) state in transient absorption spectra compared to siphonaxanthin. The presence of the dodecanoyl-oxy moiety also alters the lifetimes of the S₁/ICT state. For siphonaxanthin, the lifetimes are 60, 20, and 14 ps in n-hexane, acetonitrile, and methanol, whereas for siphonein these lifetimes yield 60, 11, and 10 ps. Thus, we show that even a non-conjugated functional group can affect the charge-transfer character of the S₁/ICT state. By comparison with fucoxanthin acyl-oxy derivatives, we show that position of the acyl-oxy group in respect to the conjugated keto group is the key feature determining whether the polarity-dependent behavior is enhanced or suppressed.

Carotenoid–chlorophyll energy transfer in the fucoxanthin–chlorophyll complex binding a fucoxanthin acyloxy derivative

A fucoxanthin derivative has negligible charge-transfer character of the S₁/ICT state resulting in slowing down of the carotenoid–chlorophyll energy transfer.