Electron spin-controlled charge transfer and the resulting long-lived charge transfer state: from transition metal complexes to organic compounds.

Abstract

The generation of long-lived charge transfer (CT) states in electron donor/acceptor dyads upon photoexcitation is crucial for artificial photosynthesis, photocatalysis and photovoltaics. Electron spin control is a novel strategy to prolong the CT state lifetime via generation of the 3CT triplet state, instead of the traditional short-lived 1CT state. This method involves a local triplet excited state (3LE) as the precursor of charge separation (CS), and the electron forbidden feature of the charge recombination (CR) of 3CT → S0vs. the electron spin allowed 1CT → S0 prolongs the CT state lifetime. In this article, we summarized the recent developments and challenges in this emerging fascinating area.