Pathways for photoinduced electron transfer in meso-nitro-phenyl-octaethylporphyrins and their chemical dimers

Abstract

The photophysical properties of meso-nitro-phenyl-octaethylporphyrins and their dimers with electron-accepting NO₂ groups in the para-, meta- and ortho-positions of the phenyl ring were studied. For the ortho-NO₂ case in deaerated toluene at 295 K, strong fluorescence quenching is caused by the intramolecular electron transfer from the porphyrin S₁ state in the absence of phenyl ring librations around the single C–C bond (‘normal’ region, non-adiabatic case). T₁ state lifetime shortening for the same compounds is explained by thermally activated transitions to upper-lying charge-transfer states of the radical ion pair as well as by the rise of the intersystem crossing T₁ → S₀ rate constants caused by T₁ states mixing with charge-transfer states. © 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.