Supramolecular Porous Organic Nanocomposites for Heterogeneous Photocatalysis of a Sulfur Mustard Simulant

Efficient heterogeneous photosensitizing materials require both large accessible surface areas and excitons of suitable energies and with well-defined spin structures. Confinement of the tetracationic cyclophane (ExBox(4+)) within a nonporous anionic polystyrene sulfonate (PSS) matrix leads to a surface area increase of up to 225 m(2)g(-1)in ExBox center dot PSS. Efficient intersystem crossing is achieved by combining the spin-orbit coupling associated to Br heavy atoms in 1,3,5,8-tetrabromopyrene (TBP), and the photoinduced electron transfer in a TBP subset of ExBox(4+)supramolecular dyad. The TBP subset of ExBox(4+)complex displays a charge transfer band at 450 nm and an exciplex emission at 520 nm, indicating the formation of new mixed-electronic states. The lowest triplet state (T-1, 1.89 eV) is localized on the TBP and is close in energy with the charge separated state (CT, 2.14 eV). The homogeneous and heterogeneous photocatalytic activities of the TBP subset of ExBox(4+), for the elimination of a sulfur mustard simulant, has proved to be significantly more efficient than TBP and ExBox(+4), confirming the importance of the newly formed excited-state manifold in TBP subset of ExBox(4+)for the population of the low-lying T(1)state. The high stability, facile preparation, and high performance of the TBP subset of ExBox center dot PSS nanocomposites augur well for the future development of new supramolecular heterogeneous photosensitizers using host-guest chemistry.