Selective Stepwise Suzuki Cross-Coupling Reaction for the Modelling of Photosynthetic Donor−Acceptor Systems

A Suzuki reaction performed as a selective stepwise substitution of two boryl groups on a diarylporphyrin precursor is reported for straightforward construction of a porphyrin trimer, modeling photosynthetic donor-acceptor systems.

Decoupling the artificial special pair to slow down the rate of singlet energy transfer

Trimer 2, composed of a cofacial heterobismacrocycle, octamethyl-porphyrin zinc(II) and bisarylporphyrin zinc(II) held by an anthracenyl spacer, and a flanking acceptor, bisarylporphyrin free-base ( Ar = -3,5-(t Bu )2 C 6 H 3), has been studied by means of absorption spectroscopy, "steady state and time-resolved fluorescence" and fs transient absorption spectroscopy, and density functional theory (DFT) in order to assess the effect of decoupling the chromophores' low energy MOs on the rate of the singlet, S1, energy transfer, k ET , compared to a recently reported work on a heavily coupled trimeric system, Trimer 1, [biphenylenebis(n-nonyl)porphyrin zinc(II)]-bisarylporphyrin free-base ( A…

Bis- and trisporphyrin bio-inspired models for bacterial antennas and photosystems

This review presents the synthetic aspects and photophysical properties of trimeric systems constructed with a first unit consisting of a cofacial porphyrin and then of another porphyrin attached as a side arm. Two scenarios are dealt with. The first one is the case where the three chromophores are different, called donor 1–donor 2–acceptor, specifically where the cofacial fragment is composed of donor 1 and donor 2, and the side arm is the acceptor. They are considered as models for the apo-proteins used in the LH II (light harvesting device) in the purple photosynthetic bacteria. The second one is the case where the chromophores of the cofacial bisporphyrin residue are identical and are …

Extending the infrared limit of oxygenic photosynthesis

Strong donor–acceptor couplings in a special pair-antenna model

A special pair model composed of two cofacial zinc porphyrins (acceptor) linked to a free base (donor) acts as an energy transfer dyad. Despite the absence of conjugation, ππ*/charge transfer excited states and ultrafast energy transfer (∼5 ps) are noted.