π‑Extended Pyrazinepyrene-Fused Zinc Phthalocyanines: Synthesis and Excited-State Charge Separation Involving Coordinated C60

Abstract

A series of pyrazinepyrene-fused zinc phthalocyanines (ZnPc-Pyrn) have been newly synthesized by reacting quinoxaline and the corresponding diamino-functionalized phthalocyanines as a new class of π-extended phthalocyanine systems. Bathochromically shifted absorption as a function of the number of pyrazinepyrene entities due to extended π-conjugation and quenched fluorescence due to the presence of fused pyrazinepyrene were witnessed. The electronic structures of these phthalocyanines were probed by systematic computational and electrochemical studies, while the excited-state properties were examined by pump−probe spectroscopies operating at the femto- and nanosecond time scales. Similar to the excited singlet lifetimes, the excited triplet states also revealed diminished lifetimes with an increased number of pyrazinepyrene entities. Further, the coordinatively unsaturated zinc in these molecules was coordinated with phenyl imidazolefunctionalized fullerene, ImC60, to form a new series of donor−acceptor conjugates. Upon full characterization of these conjugates, the occurrence of excited-state charge separation was established by transient pump−probe spectroscopy, covering wide temporal and spatial regions. The lifetime of the final charge-separated states was ∼2 ns and decreased with an increase in the number of fused pyrazinepyrene units