Mimicry of the Radical Pair and Triplet States in Photosynthetic Reaction Centers with a Synthetic Model

Abstract

Supramolecular systems synthesized to model the photosynthetic reaction center (RC) are designed to mimic several key properties of the RC protein. Thus far, most RC models fulfill only a subset of these criteria, with very few reports employing time-resolved electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy (TREPR). We now report TREPR results on a photosynthetic model system (1) in a nematic liquid crystal (LC) that does not contain the natural pigments, yet closely mimics the spin dynamics of triplet state formation found only in photosynthetic RCs. The design of supermolecule 1 follows criteria established for promoting high quantum yield charge separation in glassy media. The observation of this triplet state in 1 by TREPR demonstrates that most of the electronic states found in the primary photochemistry of photosynthetic RCs can be mimicked successfully in synthetic models interacting with LCs. 12 refs., 3 figs.