Tuning photoinduced energy- and electron-transfer events in subphthalocyanine-phthalocyanine dyads

A series of subphthalocya-nine-phthalocyanine dyads has been prepared by means of palladium-catalyzed cross-coupling reactions between a monoalkynylphthalocyanine and different monoiodosubphthalocyanines. Electronic coupling between the two photoactive units is ensured by a rigid and pi-conjugated alkynyl spacer. In addition, the electronic characteristics of the subphthalocyanine moiety were modulated by the introduction of different peripheral substituents. Cyclic and Osteryoung square-wave voltammetry experiments revealed that the reduction potential of this subunit can be decreased by about 400 mV on going from thioether or no substituents to nitro groups. As a consequence, the energy level of the charge-transfer state could be fine-tuned so as to gain control over the fate of the photoexcitation energy in each subunit. The diverse steady-state and time-resolved photophysical techniques employed demonstrated that, when the charge-transfer state lies high in energy, a quantitative singlet-singlet energytransfer mechanism from the excited subphthalocyanine to the phthalocyanine takes place. On the contrary, stabilization of the radical pair by lowering the redox gap between electron donor and acceptor results in a highly efficient photoinduced electron-transfer process, even in solvents of low polarity ;such as toluene (Phi(ET) approximate to 0.9). These features, together with the extraordinary absorptive cross section that these molecular ensembles display across the whole UV/Vis spectrum, make them model candidates for application in situations whe re broadband light sources are needed.