A panchromatic supramolecular fullerene-based donor-acceptor assembly derived from a peripherally substituted bodipy-zinc phthalocyanine dyad.

A panchromatic 4,4-difluoro-4-bora-3a,4a-diaza-s-indacene-zinc phthalocyanine conjugate (Bodipy-ZnPc) 1 was synthesized starting from phthalocyanine aldehyde 4, via dipyrromethane 3 and dipyrromethene 2. Conjugate 1 represents the first example in which a Bodipy unit is tethered to the peripheral position of a phthalocyanine core. Electrochemical and optical measurements provided evidence for strong electronic interactions between the Bodipy and ZnPc constituents in the ground state of 1. When conjugate 1 is subjected to photoexcitation in the spectral region corresponding to the Bodipy absorption, the strong fluorescence characteristic of the latter subunit is effectively quenched (i.e., > or = 97%). Excitation spectral analysis confirmed that the photoexcited Bodipy and the tethered ZnPc subunits interact and that intraconjugate singlet energy transfer occurs with an efficiency of ca. 25%. Treatment of conjugate 1 with N-pyridylfulleropyrrolidine (8), an electron-acceptor system containing a nitrogen ligand, gives rise to the novel electron donor-acceptor hybrid 1<-->8 through ligation to the ZnPc center. Irradiation of the resulting supramolecular ensemble within the visible range leads to a charge-separated Bodipy-ZnPc(+)-C(60)(-) radical-ion-pair state, through a sequence of excited-state and charge transfers, characterized by a remarkably long lifetime of 39.9 ns in toluene.