The self-assembly of redox-active molecules into ordered arrays capable of rapid, long-distance charge transport is important for the development of functional nanomaterials for organic electronics. In this regard, DNA shows great promise as a structural scaffold for the helical arrangement of chromophores and other (semi)conducting materials. [1][2][3] Base substitutions and modifications, sugar modifications, and noncovalent interactions have all been used for the construction of such DNA-based structures. Perylenediimides (PDIs), which have the advantages of strong absorptivity, high fluorescence quantum yields, high photochemical and thermal stability, strong hydrophobic p-p stacking interactions, and semiconducting properties, have been incorporated in a variety of structures. [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16] Recently, Wagner and Wagenknecht [10] reported the preparation of a PDI derivative, P (Figure 1), which is readily incorporated into an oligonucleotide and serves as a base-pair surrogate when located opposite an abasic site in a duplex structure. The incorporation of P in opposite complementary oligonucleotides has been shown to result in the formation of stable duplexes in which the P units are located in a zipperlike fashion within the hydrophobic interior of the resulting duplex. [5,17] The stacking of P units within the duplex resulted in an excimer-like state following photoexcitation. [16] We report herein the results of our investigation of intramolecular electron hopping within a series of synthetic DNA hairpins 1-4 (Figure 1). These hairpins possess compact 3'-CCA loop regions connecting poly(T)-poly(A) stems containing a single P moiety located opposite an abasic site (1), two P moieties located opposite abasic sites and attached either to the same strand (in 2 s) or to opposite strands (in 2 o), or three or four P moieties positioned adjacent to one another but on opposite strands in a zipperlike fashion (in 3 and 4). The EPR spectra of the singly reduced duplexes were consistent with electron hopping between two sites in both dimers (the hairpins containing two P moieties) and the trimer 3, and among three sites in the tetramer 4. Herein, we discuss the origin and implications of partial electron sharing.Oligonucleotides containing P were synthesized by the method of Wagner and Wagenknecht; [10] the CCA linker in hairpins 1-4 has been employed previously in the synthesis of stable minihairpins. [13,17,18] The characterization of 1-4, including mass spectrometry and circular dichroism (CD), is described in the Supporting Information.An intensity reversal was observed in the UV/Vis absorption spectra for the 0!0 and 0!1 transitions in 2-4 with respect to those of 1 (Figure 2). This result indicates that the p-stacked P chromophores are exciton-coupled. [19][20][21] Moreover, the A 0!0 /A 0!1 ratio for the vibronic bands decreased as the number of P units increased, and there was a notable difference between dimers 2 s and 2 o, presumably as a result of the conformational changes...