Understanding Charge-Transfer Characteristics in Crystalline Nanosheets of Fullerene/(Metallo)porphyrin Cocrystals.

Abstract

Cocrystals in the form of crystalline nanosheets comprised of C70 and (metallo)porphyrins were prepared by using the liquid-liquid interfacial precipitation (LLIP) method where full control over the morphologies in the C70/(metallo)porphyrins nanosheets has been accomplished by changing the solvent and the relative molar ratio of fullerene to (metallo)porphyrin. Importantly, the synergy of integrating C70 and (metallo)porphyrins as electron acceptors and donors, respectively, into nanosheets is substantiated in the form of a near-infrared charge-transfer absorption. The presence of the latter, as reflection of ground-state electron donor-acceptor interactions in the nanosheets, in which a sizable redistribution of charge density from the electron-donating (metallo)porphyrins to the electron-accepting C70 occurs, leads to a quantitative quenching of the localized (metallo)porphyrin fluorescence. Going beyond the ground-state characterization, excited-state electron donor-acceptor interactions are the preclusion to a full charge transfer featuring formation of a radical ion pair state, that is, the one-electron reduced fullerene and the one-electron oxidized (metallo)porphyrin.