Decorating graphene nanosheets with electron accepting pyridyl-phthalocyanines

Abstract

We describe herein the preparation of novel exfoliated graphene–phthalocyanine nanohybrids, and the investigation of their photophysical properties. Pyridyl-phthalocyanines (Pcs) 1–3 are presented as novel electron accepting building blocks of variable strengths with great potential for the exfoliation of graphite via their immobilization onto the basal plane of graphene in dimethylformamide (DMF) affording single layered and turbostratic graphene based G1–G3. G1–G3 were fully characterized (AFM, TEM, Raman, steady-state and pump probe transient absorption spectroscopy) and were studied in terms of electron donor–acceptor interactions in the ground and excited states. In this context, electron transfer upon photoexcitation from graphene to the electron accepting Pcs with dynamics, for example, in G2 of <1 and 330 ± 50 ps for charge separation and charge recombination, respectively, was corroborated in a series of steady-state and time-resolved spectroscopy experiments.