Long-distance photoinitiated electron transfer through polyene molecular wires

Long-chain polyenes can be used as molecular wires to facilitate electron transfer between a photo-excited donor and an acceptor in an artificial photosynthetic system. The authors present data here on two Zn-porphyrin-polyene-anthraquinone molecules possessing either 5 or 9 all trans double bonds between the donor and acceptor, 1 and 2. The center-to-center distances between the porphyrin and the quinone in these relatively rigid molecules are 25 angstrom for 1 and 35 angstrom for 2. Selective picosecond laser excitation of the Zn-porphyrin and 1 and 2 results in the very rapid transfer of an electron to the anthraquinone in <2 ps and 10 ps, respectively. The resultant radical ion pairs recombine with τ = 10 ps for 1 and τ = 25 ps for 2. The electron transfer rates remain remarkably rapid over these long distances. The involvement of polyene radical cations in the mechanism of the radical ion pair recombination reaction is clear from the transient absorption spectra of 1 and 2, which show strong absorbances in the near-infrared. The strong electronic coupling between the Zn-porphyrin n the anthraquinone provided by low-lying states of the polyene make it possible to transfer an electron rapidly over very long distances