Channa A. Wijesinghe

Supramolecular solar cells: surface modification of nanocrytalline TiO(2) with coordinating ligands to immobilize sensitizers and dyads via metal-ligand coordination for enhanced photocurrent generation.

An elegant method of self-assembly for modification of a TiO(2) surface using coordinating ligands followed by immobilization of variety of sensitizers and a dyad is reported. This highly versatile method, in addition to testing the photoelectrochemical behavior of different zinc tetrapyrroles, allowed the use of fairly complex structures involving more than one donor entity. Utilization of the zinc porphyrin-ferrocene dyad markedly improved the current-voltage performance of the photoelectrochemical cell through an electron transfer-hole migration mechanism. Incident photon-to-current efficiency values up to 37% were obtained for the electrode modified with the dyad, signifying the importance of photocells built on the basis of biomimetic principles for efficient harvesting of solar energy.

Ultrafast Photoinduced Energy and Electron Transfer in Multi-Modular Donor-Acceptor Conjugates

New multi-modular donor-acceptor conjugates featuring zinc porphyrin (ZnP), catechol-chelated boron dipyrrin (BDP), triphenylamine (TPA) and fullerene (C(60)), or naphthalenediimide (NDI) have been newly designed and synthesized as photosynthetic antenna and reaction-center mimics. The X-ray structure of triphenylamine-BDP is also reported. The wide-band capturing polyad revealed ultrafast energy-transfer (k(ENT) =1.0 × 10(12) s(-1)) from the singlet excited BDP to the covalently linked ZnP owing to close proximity and favorable orientation of the entities. Introducing either fullerene or naphthalenediimide electron acceptors to the TPA-BDP-ZnP triad through metal-ligand axial coordination resulted in electron donor-acceptor polyads whose structures were revealed by spectroscopic, electrochemical and computational studies. Excitation of the electron donor, zinc porphyrin resulted in rapid electron-transfer to coordinated fullerene or naphthalenediimide yielding charge separated ion-pair species. The measured electron transfer rate constants from femtosecond transient spectral technique in non-polar toluene were in the range of 5.0 × 10(9)-3.5 × 10(10) s(-1). Stabilization of the charge-separated state in these multi-modular donor-acceptor polyads is also observed to certain level.

Photochemical charge separation in closely positioned donor-boron dipyrrin-fullerene triads

A series of molecular triads, composed of closely positioned boron dipyrrin-fullerene units, covalently linked to either an electron donor (donor(1)-acceptor(1)-acceptor(2)-type triads) or an energy donor (antenna-donor(1)-acceptor(1)-type triads) was synthesized and photoinduced energy/electron transfer leading to stabilization of the charge-separated state was demonstrated by using femtosecond and nanosecond transient spectroscopic techniques. The structures of the newly synthesized triads were visualized by DFT calculations, whereas the energies of the excited states were determined from spectral and electrochemical studies. In the case of the antenna-donor(1)-acceptor(1)-type triads, excitation of the antenna moiety results in efficient energy transfer to the boron dipyrrin entity. The singlet-excited boron dipyrrin thus generated, undergoes subsequent energy and electron transfer to fullerene to produce a boron dipyrrin radical cation and a fullerene radical anion as charge-separated species. Stabilization of the charge-separated state in these molecular triads was observed to some extent.

Charge stabilization in a closely spaced ferrocene-boron dipyrrin-fullerene triad

New molecular triads composed of closely spaced ferrocene-boron dipyrrin-fullerene, 1 and triphenylamine-boron dipyrrin-fullerene, 2 are synthesized, and photoinduced electron transfer leading to charge stabilization is demonstrated using a femtosecond transient spectroscopic technique.

A charge-stabilizing, multimodular, ferrocene-bis(triphenylamine)-zinc-porphyrin-fullerene polyad

A novel multimodular donor-acceptor polyad featuring zinc porphyrin, fullerene, ferrocene, and triphenylamine entities was designed, synthesized, and studied as a charge-stabilizing, photosynthetic-antenna/reaction-center mimic. The ferrocene and fullerene entities, covalently linked to the porphyrin ring, were distantly separated to accomplish the charge-separation/hole-migration events leading to the creation of a long-lived charge-separated state. The geometry and electronic structures of the newly synthesized compound was deduced by B3LYP/3-21G(*) optimization, while the energy levels for different photochemical events was established using data from the optical absorption and emission, and electrochemical studies. Excitation of the triphenylamine entities revealed singlet-singlet energy transfer to the appended zinc porphyrin. As predicted from the energy levels, photoinduced electron transfer from both the singlet and triplet excited states of the zinc porphyrin to fullerene followed by subsequent hole migration involving ferrocene was witnessed from the transient absorption studies. The charge-separated state persisted for about 8.5 μs and was governed by the distance between the final charge-transfer product, that is, a species involving a ferrocenium cation and a fullerene radical anion, with additional influence from the charge-stabilizing triphenylamine entities located on the zinc-porphyrin macrocycle.

Photoinduced electron transfer in a directly linked meso-triphenylamine zinc porphyrin-quinone dyad

A multimodular donor-acceptor system composed of three triphenylamine entities at the meso-positions of a zinc porphyrin macrocycle and a quinone at the fourth meso-position was newly synthesized and characterized. The triphenylamine entities acted as energy transferring antenna units in addition of improving the electron donor ability of the zinc porphyrin. Appreciable electronic interactions of the triphenylamine and quinone entities with the porphyrin π-system were observed. In agreement with the spectral and electrochemical results, the computational studies performed by the DFT B3LYP/3-21G(*) method revealed delocalization of the frontier HOMO over the triphenylamine and the porphyrin macrocycle while the LUMO to be fully localized over the quinone entity. Free-energy calculations suggested photoinduced electron transfer from the singlet excited zinc porphyrin to the directly linked quinone to be exothermic and this was experimentally confirmed by the time-resolved pump probe and up-conversion techniques. In the investigated system, the ET reaction path was found to depend upon the excitation wavelength. That is, when Zn porphyrin was predominantly excited, a rapid charge separation followed by equally fast charge recombination was observed. However, excitation of the peripheral TPA substituents resulted in an extremely long-lived CS state with triplet spin character via the TPA triplet and Zn porphyrin triplet states.