Singlet and Triplet Excitation Management in a Bichromophoric Near-Infrared-Phosphorescent BODIPY-Benzoporphyrin Platinum Complex

Multichromophoric arrays provide one strategy for assembling molecules with intense absorptions across the visible spectrum but are generally focused on systems that efficiently produce and manipulate singlet excitations and therefore are burdened by the restrictions of (a) unidirectional energy transfer and (b) limited tunability of the lowest molecular excited state. In contrast, we present here a multichromophoric array based on four boron dipyrrins (BODIPY) bound to a platinum benzoporphyrin scaffold that exhibits intense panchromatic absorption and efficiently generates triplets. The spectral complementarity of the BODIPY and porphryin units allows the direct observation of fast bidirectional singlet and triplet energy transfer processes (k ST(1BDP→1Por) = 7.8×1011 s-1, kTT(3Por→3BDP) = 1.0×1010 s-1, kTT(3BDP→ 3Por) = 1.6×1010 s-1), leading to a long-lived equilibrated [3BDP][Por]=[BDP][3Por] state. This equilibrated state contains approximately isoenergetic porphyrin and BODIPY triplets and exhibits efficient near-infrared phosphorescence (λem = 772 nm, φ = 0.26). Taken together, these studies show that appropriately designed triplet-utilizing arrays may overcome fundamental limitations typically associated with core-shell chromophores by tunable redistribution of energy from the core back onto the antennae. © 2010 American Chemical Society.