Probing molecular wire: synthesis of donor-acceptor ensembles exhibiting long range electron transfer

A series of donor–acceptor arrays (C60–oligo-PPV–exTTF; 16–20) incorporating p-conjugated oligo(phenylenevinylene) wires (oligo-PPV) of different length between p-extended tetrathiafulvalene (exTTF) as electron donor and C60 as electron acceptor has been prepared by multistep convergent synthetic approaches. The electronic interactions between the three electroactive species present in 16–20 were investigated by UV-visible spectroscopy and cyclic voltammetry (CV). Our studies clearly show that, although the C60 units are connected to the exTTF donors through a p-conjugated oligo- PPV framework, no significant electronic interactions are observed in the ground state. Interestingly, photoindu…

Molecular engineering of donor-acceptor ensembles: modulating the competition between photoinduced energy and electron transfer processes

Electronic communication through pi-conjugated wires in covalently linked porphyrin/C60 ensembles

Novel photo- and electroactive triads, in which pi-conjugated p-phenylenevinylene oligomers (oPPVs) of different length are connected to a photoexcited-state electron donor (i.e., zinc tetraphenylporphyrin) and an electron acceptor (i.e., C(60)), were designed, synthesized, and tested as electron-transfer model systems. A detailed physicochemical investigation, concentrating mainly on long-range charge separation and charge recombination and kinetics, revealed small attenuation factors beta of 0.03+/-0.005 A(-1). Energy matching between the HOMO levels of C(60) and oPPVs emerged as a key parameter for supporting molecular-wire-like behavior: It favors rapid and efficient electron or hole in…