Photoinduced electron transfer light-harvesting complexes

A special situation is encountered with metal-porphyrin or metal-phthalo-cyanine molecules that can be either deposited by sublimation under UHV conditions or in solution environments. For these macrocyclic compounds, free-base species exist, i.e., the metal centers are not required per se as a construction unit. The building of supramolecular structures that incorporate porphyrin subunits is of great interest to many research groups. The rich photochemistry and redox properties (e.g., photoinduced electron transfer, luminescence, and light harvesting) of porphyrins have driven this interest. Porphyrins or phtalocyanines have a rich coordination chemistry that allows the inclusion of many different metal centers at their macrocycle. They serve in many respects as a model system since this constitutes a low-coordination complex. Recent STM studies report on the organization of metal-coordinated or free-base porphyrins as well as phthalocyanines on... 

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