Control of Photoinduced Electron Transfer Using Complex Formation of Water-Soluble Porphyrin and Polyvinylpyrrolidone

Abstract

Inspired by the natural photosynthetic system in which proteins control the electron transfer from electron donors to acceptors, in this research, artificial polymers were tried to achieve this control effect. Polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) was found to form complex with pigments 5,10,15,20-tetrakis-(4-sulfonatophenyl) porphyrin (TPPS) and its zinc complex (ZnTPPS) quantitatively through different interactions (hydrogen bonds and coordination bonds, respectively). These complex formations hinder the interaction between ground-state TPPS or ZnTPPS and an electron acceptor (methyl viologen, MV2+) and could control the photoinduced electron transfer from TPPS or ZnTPPS to MV2+, giving more electron transfer products methyl viologen cationic radical (MV+•). Other polymers such as PEG did not show similar results, indicating that PVP plays an important role in controlling the photoinduced electron transfer.

Hierarchical electrostatic nanotemplating and self-assembly of electron-transferring hybrid nanostructures: CdS–polymer–porphyrin particles

“…For porphyrins, the excitation can occur in the visible range, but with lower MV˙ + output. The latter was achieved for porphyrin polymer systems, such as poly(vinylpyrrolidone)-porphyrin 48 and dendrimer-porphyrin. 49 In the first case, the excitation of the porphyrin occurred at UV-light yielding and increase of approximately 0.8 relative OD (at 605 nm) after 30 minutes.…”