title: Determination of ground-state hole-transfer rates between equivalent sites in oxidized multiporphyrin arrays using time-resolved optical spectroscopy.
abstract: Excited-state charge separation in molecular architectures has been widely explored, yet ground-state hole (or electron) transfer, particularly involving equivalent pigments, has been far less studied, and direct quantitation of the rate of transfer often has proved difficult. Prior studies of ground-state hole transfer between equivalent zinc porphyrins using electron paramagnetic resonance techniques give a lower limit of approximately (50 ns)(-1) on the rates. Related transient optical studies of hole transfer between inequivalent sites [zinc porphyrin (Zn) and free base porphyrin (Fb)] give an upper limit of approximately (20 ps)(-1). Thus, a substantial window remains for the unknown rates of ground-state hole transfer between equivalent sites. Herein, the ground-state hole-transfer processes are probed in a series of oxidized porphyrin triads (ZnZnFb) with the focus being on determination of the rates between the nominally equivalent sites (Zn/Zn). The strategy builds upon recent time-resolved optical studies of the photodynamics of dyads wherein a zinc porphyrin is electrochemically oxidized and the attached free base porphyrin is photoexcited. The resulting energy- and hole-transfer processes in the oxidized ZnFb dyads are typically complete within 100 ps of excitation. Such processes are also present in the triads and serve as a starting point for determining the rates of ground-state hole transfer between equivalent sites in the triads. The rate constant of the Zn/Zn hole transfer is found to be (0.8 ns)(-1) for diphenylethyne-linked zinc porphyrins and increases only slightly to (0.6 ns)(-1) when a shorter phenylene linker is utilized. The rate decreases slightly to (1.1 ns)(-1) when steric constraints are introduced in the diarylethyne linker. In general, the rate constants for ground-state Zn/Zn hole transfer in oxidized arrays are a factor of 40 slower than those for Zn/Fb transfer. Collectively, the findings should aid the design of next-generation molecular architectures for applications in solar-energy conversion.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri 63130-4889, USA.
authors.forename: Hee-eun
authors.initials: HE
authors.lastname: Song
authors.forename: Christine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Kirmaier
authors.forename: Masahiko
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Taniguchi
authors.forename: James R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Diers
authors.forename: David F
authors.initials: DF
authors.lastname: Bocian
authors.forename: Jonathan S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Lindsey
authors.forename: Dewey
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Holten