Issue 47, 2014

Electron transfer dynamics and excited state branching in a charge-transfer platinum(ii) donor–bridge-acceptor assembly

Abstract

A linear asymmetric Pt(II) trans-acetylide donor–bridge-acceptor triad designed for efficient charge separation, NAP[triple bond, length as m-dash]Pt(PBu3)2[triple bond, length as m-dash]Ph–CH2–PTZ (1), containing strong electron acceptor and donor groups, 4-ethynyl-N-octyl-1,8-naphthalimide (NAP) and phenothiazine (PTZ) respectively, has been synthesised and its photoinduced charge transfer processes characterised in detail. Excitation with 400 nm, ∼50 fs laser pulse initially populates a charge transfer manifold stemming from electron transfer from the Pt-acetylide centre to the NAP acceptor and triggers a cascade of charge and energy transfer events. A combination of ultrafast time-resolved infrared (TRIR) and transient absorption (TA) spectroscopies, supported by UV-Vis/IR spectroelectrochemistry, emission spectroscopy and DFT calculations reveals a self-consistent photophysical picture of the excited state evolution from femto- to milliseconds. The characteristic features of the NAP-anion and PTZ-cation are clearly observed in both the TRIR and TA spectra, confirming the occurrence of electron transfer and allowing the rate constants of individual ET-steps to be obtained. Intriguingly, 1 has three separate ultrafast electron transfer pathways from a non-thermalised charge transfer manifold directly observed by TRIR on timescales ranging from 0.2 to 14 ps: charge recombination to form either the intraligand triplet 3NAP with 57% yield, or the ground state, and forward electron transfer to form the full charge-separated state 3CSS (3[PTZ+–NAP]) with 10% yield as determined by target analysis. The 3CSS decays by charge-recombination to the ground state with ∼1 ns lifetime. The lowest excited state is 3NAP, which possesses a long lifetime of 190 μs and efficiently sensitises singlet oxygen. Overall, molecular donor–bridge-acceptor triad 1 demonstrates excited state branching over 3 different pathways, including formation of a long-distant (18 Å) full charge-separated excited state from a directly observed vibrationally hot precursor state.

Graphical abstract: Electron transfer dynamics and excited state branching in a charge-transfer platinum(ii) donor–bridge-acceptor assembly

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
06 Jun 2014
Accepted
20 Oct 2014
First published
31 Oct 2014
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY license

Dalton Trans., 2014,43, 17677-17693

Electron transfer dynamics and excited state branching in a charge-transfer platinum(II) donor–bridge-acceptor assembly

P. A. Scattergood, M. Delor, I. V. Sazanovich, O. V. Bouganov, S. A. Tikhomirov, A. S. Stasheuski, A. W. Parker, G. M. Greetham, M. Towrie, E. S. Davies, A. J. H. M. Meijer and J. A. Weinstein, Dalton Trans., 2014, 43, 17677 DOI: 10.1039/C4DT01682C

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