Photophysical properties of Sn(IV)tetraphenylporphyrin-pyrene dyad with a β-vinyl linker

Abstract

A Sn (IV)tetraphenylporphyrin (T) has been functionalized with a β-vinyl pyrene (P) and the photophysical properties of the formed dyad (T-P) with its corresponding precursors were studied in three solvents with different polarities using steady-state and time-resolved measurements in ps and fs timescales. When the pyrene moiety is excited at λex = 340 nm, the fluorescence spectroscopy experiments indicate in all the studied solvents, an efficient quenching of the pyrene emission. When excited at either λex = 340 nm or λex = 405 nm, where porphyrin absorbs, a new emissive excited state complex (T-P)* is observed at wavelenghts close to the parent porphyrin emission. The emission is more pronounced in nonpolar hexane showing a mono-exponential decay, but bi-exponential decays are observed in more polar dicloromethane and acetonitrile. When the porphyrin moiety is excited at λex = 425 nm, the fs transient absorption analysis shows two different intermediate species (~ 7–11 ps and 80–100 ps) with broad absorption in the near-IR region. This implies either the existence of two different excited conformers (T-P)*, which decay to the ground state via a charge separated state (CSS), or the formation of the (T-P)* state via the second excited state of the porphyrin moiety, yielding first an excited emissive v(T-P)* state, with a lifetime of 80–100 ps.