Impact of electronic asymmetry on photoexcited triplet-state spin distributions in conjugated porphyrin oligomers probed via EPR spectroscopy

The photophysics of triplet excitons in a series of electronically asymmetric "push-pull" π-conjugated meso-to-meso ethyne-bridged (porphinato)metal oligomers, along with electronically symmetric analogues, were studied by X-band electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy under continuous-wave (CW) optical pumping conditions in the 4-100 K temperature range. In all of the systems studied, the spatial extent of the triplet wave function, as inferred from the |D| zero-field splitting (ZFS) parameter, never exceeds the dimensions of a single porphyryl moiety and its meso-pendant ethynyl groups. The |D| values determined for an oligomeric series of these electronically asymmetric species that span one through four porphyryl units are respectively 0.0301, 0.0303, 0.0300, and 0.0301 cm -1, indicating a common triplet wave function spatial delocalization of approximately 0.4-0.45 nm. Electron spin-spin and spin-lattice relaxation times were determined over the 4-30 K temperature range using progressive microwave power saturation for benchmark, structurally related electronically symmetric conjugated porphyrin species which possessed either terminal electron-rich [4-dimethylammo(phenyl)] ethynyl or electron-poor [4-nitro(phenyl)]ethynyl substituents. The spin-lattice relaxation times obtained from these experiments reveal no significant scaling of this parameter with conjugation length, consistent with a S = 1 spin system that is confined to a single monomeric porphyrin unit and its pendent ethynyl substituents. These results are discussed within the global context of a broader body of experiments that have probed the extent of triplet exciton delocalization within a number of families of highly π-conjugated organic oligomers and polymers.

Duke Scholars

Author Michael J. Therien Chemistry