Ultrafast Photoinduced Electron Transfer Reactions in Supramolecular Arrays

Book excerpt: Research in our laboratory focuses on developing supramolecular arrays that produce long-lived charge separation by limiting the electronic coupling between the separated charges, and on the role of solvation in determining the rates and energetics of photoinitiated electron transfer reactions. Arrays have been developed that closely mimic the electronic coupling that was observed only for long-lived radical pairs produced in photosynthetic glassy solids. A series of 36 fixed-distance donor-acceptor molecules using porphyrin donors, triptycene spacers, and 9 different acceptors has been prepared; these are used to probe the dependence of photoinduced charge separation rates on free energy of reaction as a function of solvent both in liquid and solid solution. Data were obtained on rates of charge separation in dioxane, MTHF, butyronitrile, toluene, chlorobenzene, and benzonitrile.