The synthesis and characterisation of a free-base porphyrin-perylene dyad that exhibits electronic coupling in both the ground and excited states.

A covalent dyad composed of a free-base porphyrin and a perylene diimide (1) was synthesised and characterised by NMR, HRMS, UV/Vis and fluorometric methods. UV/Vis spectrophotometric analysis indicated a moderate coupling between the components in the ground state. Fluorescence spectroscopy revealed that the emissive properties of the dyad showed that the quantum yield of emission from the porphyrin Soret band increased dramatically and could not be rationalised by a straightforward photoinduced energy (and/or electron) transfer, but rather a coupling of excited states.