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Title: “Two‐Point” Self‐Assembly and Photoinduced Electron Transfer in meso ‐Donor‐Carrying Bis(styryl crown ether)‐BODIPY–Bis(alkylammonium)fullerene Donor–Acceptor Conjugates
Abstract

BF2‐chelated dipyrromethene, BODIPY, was functionalized to carry two styryl crown ether tails and a secondary electron donor at themesoposition. By using a “two‐point” self‐assembly strategy, a bis‐alkylammonium‐functionalized fullerene (C60) was allowed to self‐assemble the crown ether voids of BODIPY to obtain multimodular donor–acceptor conjugates. As a consequence of the two‐point binding, the 1:1 stoichiometric complexes formed yielded complexes of higher stability in which fluorescence of BODIPY was found to be quenched; this suggested the occurrence of excited‐state processes. The geometry and electronic structure of the self‐assembled complexes were derived from B3LYP/3‐21G(*) methods in which no steric constraints between the entities was observed. An energy‐level diagram was established by using spectral, electrochemical, and computational results to help understand the mechanistic details of excited‐state processes originating from1bis‐styryl‐BODIPY*. Femtosecond transient absorbance studies were indicative of the formation of an exciplex state prior to the charge‐separation process to yield a bis‐styryl‐BODIPY.+–C60.radical ion pair. The time constants for charge separation were generally lower than charge‐recombination processes. The present studies bring out the importance of multimode binding strategies to obtain stable self‐assembled donor–acceptor conjugates capable of undergoing photoinduced charge separation needed in artificial photosynthetic applications.

 
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NSF-PAR ID:
10040304
Author(s) / Creator(s):
 ;  ;  ;  
Publisher / Repository:
Wiley Blackwell (John Wiley & Sons)
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Chemistry – An Asian Journal
Volume:
12
Issue:
17
ISSN:
1861-4728
Page Range / eLocation ID:
p. 2258-2270
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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