Morphology-controlled self-assembled nanostructures of complementary metalloporphyrin triads obtained through tuning their intermolecular coordination and their photocatalytic degradation of Orange II dye

Abstract

A series of complementary metalloporphyrin triads (1–6) were synthesized by the reaction of meso-(5-(4-hydroxyphenyl)-10,15,20-tris(4-tert-butylphenyl)porphyrinato)zinc(II) and six other trans-dihydroxo-Sn(IV) porphyrin complexes (SnPⁿ) with different numbers and positions of intermolecular coordination bonding sites. Complementary metalloporphyrin triads and their self-assembled nanostructures were characterized using various spectroscopic and microscopic techniques. The number of intermolecular metal–ligand coordinations dependent on the pyridyl-N atom of the central SnPⁿ directed the self-assembly process for these nanoaggregates. Moreover, the different orientations of the two pyridyl-N atoms in SnP³ (trans) and SnP⁴ (cis) resulted in different nanostructures. The photocatalytic degradation of Orange II (ORII) dye in an aqueous solution under visible light irradiation was investigated using these photocatalysts. The degradation performance of ORII was varied from 78% for 1 to 96% for 4 under visible light irradiation for 2 h.