Flavin-mediated photooxidations have been described for applications in synthetic organic chemistry for some time and are claimed to be a route to the use of solar energy. We present a detailed investigation of the involved photophysical and photochemical steps in methoxybenzyl alcohol oxidation on a timescale ranging from sub-picoseconds to tens of microseconds. The results establish the flavin triplet state as the key intermediate for the photooxidation. The initial step is an electron transfer from the alcohol to the triplet state of the flavin catalyst with, followed by a proton transfer in B6 ms. In contrast, the electron transfer involving the singlet state of flavin is a loss channel. It is followed by rapid charge recombination (t = 50 ps) without significant product formation as seen when flavin is dissolved in pure benzylic alcohol. In dilute acetonitrile/water solutions of flavin and alcohol the electron transfer is mostly controlled by diffusion, though at high substrate concentrations >100 mM we also find a considerable contribution from preassociated flavin-alcohol-aggregates. The model including a productive triplet channel and a competing singlet loss channel is confirmed by the course of the photooxidation quantum yield as a function of substrate concentration: We find a maximum quantum yield of 3% at 25 mM of benzylic alcohol and significantly smaller values for both higher and lower alcohol concentrations. The observations indicate the importance to perform flavin photooxidations at optimized substrate concentrations to achieve high quantum efficiencies and provide directions for the design of flavin photocatalysts with improved performance.

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Irradiation of the LOV1 domain from the blue-light photoreceptor phototropin of the green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii leads to the formation of a covalent adduct of the sulfur atom of cysteine 57 to the carbon C(4a) in the chromophore FMN. This reaction is not possible in the mutant LOV1-C57G in which this cysteine is replaced by glycine. Irradiation of LOV1-C57G in the absence of oxygen but in the presence of aliphatic mercaptans or thioethers leads to the formation of a species with an absorption maximum at 615 nm, which is identified as the neutral radical FMNH . When oxygen is admitted, the reaction is completely reversible. Irradiation of LOV1-C57G in the presence of methylmercaptan CH(3)SH under oxygen-free conditions yields, in addition to FMNH , a third species with a single absorption maximum at 379 nm. This species is stable against oxygen and is also formed when the irradiation is performed in the presence of oxygen. This species is assigned to the adduct between CH(3)SH and FMN. In aqueous solution the photoreaction of CH(3)SH with FMN leads to the fully reduced hydroquinone form FMNH(2) or its anion FMNH(-). Adduct formation apparently requires the protein cage. After formation, the adduct is stable for hours inside the protein, but decomposes immediately upon denaturation. The implications of these observations for the mechanism of adduct formation in wild type LOV domains are discussed.

International audienceNovel photoresponsive materials based on ruthenium(II) σ-acetylides coupled to an azobenzene moiety in the main π-conjugated chain have been synthesized. The introduction of a metal acetylide fragment in the same conjugated chain as the azobenzene induces the trans-cis-trans isomerization of the azo unit, while the rate of the thermal cis → trans back isomerization increases with increasing overall electron richness of these compounds. These azobenzene-containing ruthenium(II) acetylides show satisfactory processability and give rise to spin-coated uniform thin films. Formation of surface-relief gratings on their amorphous thin films and in a PMMA polymer matrix using a picosecond pulsed laser at 532 nm results in instantaneous inscription: saturation of the first order diffraction efficiency and of the modulation amplitude of gratings were obtained in less than 1 s, while the orientation of these azodyes remains unchanged for up to 6 months

The chromophores ethynyl pyrene as blue, ethynyl perylene as green and ethynyl Nile red as red emitter were conjugated to the 5-position of 2'-deoxyuridine via an acetylene bridge. Using phosphoramidite chemistry on solid phase labelled DNA duplexes were prepared that bear single chromophore modifications, and binary and ternary combinations of these chromophore modifications. The steady-state and time-resolved fluorescence spectra of all three chromophores were studied in these modified DNA duplexes. An energy-transfer cascade occurs from ethynyl pyrene over ethynyl perylene to ethynyl Nile red and subsequently an electron-transfer cascade in the opposite direction (from ethynyl Nile red to ethynyl perylene or ethynyl pyrene, but not from ethynyl perylene to ethynyl pyrene). The electron-transfer processes finally provide charge separation. The efficiencies by these energy and electron-transfer processes can be tuned by the distances between the chromophores and the sequences. Most importantly, excitation at any wavelength between 350 and 700 nm finally leads to charge separated states which make these DNA samples promising candidates for light-harvesting systems.