Photophysicochemical behaviour of metallophthalocyanines when doped onto silica nanoparticles

Abstract

Aluminum(III) chloride 2,9(10),16(17),23(24)–tetra–(4–tert–butylphenoxy)phthalocyanine (1), zinc(II) 2,9(10),16(17),23(24)–tetra–(4–tert–butylphenoxy)phthalocyanine (2), zinc(II) 1,8(11),15(18),22(25)–tetra–(4–tert–butylphenoxy) phthalocyanine (3) and zinc(II) 2,9(10),16(17),23(24)–tetra–(4–carboxylphenoxy) phthalocyanine (4) were doped onto silica nanoparticles (SiNPs). There were no significant changes in fluorescence quantum yields and lifetimes of the metallophthalocyanines ( MPcs) when doped onto SiNPs. The triplet quantum yields of the MPcs alone range from 0.22 to 0.85 and in the presence of SiNPs the values range from 0.17 to 0.89. We observed a general decrease of triplet quantum yields of phthalocyanines in the conjugates except for 2 where there was an increase. The values were highly affected by aggregation. Complexes 1 and 3 were highly aggregated when doped onto SiNPs, while 2 and 4 did not show much aggregation.