Ground-and Excited-State Characterization of an Electrostatic Complex between Tetrakis-(4-Sulfonatophenyl)porphyrin and 16-Pyrimidinium Crown-4

Abstract— We report the formation of an electrostatic complex between (16-pyrimidinium crown-4)tetranitrate (16PC4) and tetrakis-(4-sulfonatophenyl)porphyrin (4SP) in aqueous solution. Ground-state complex formation results in a red shift of the 4SP visible absorption bands and a decrease in absorbance of the Soret band. The equilibrium constant for complex formation (determined from optical titrations) is found to be (2.0 ± 0.2) × 10⁵ M ^?1. In addition, the data fit to an expression describing a 1:1 stoichiometry. Excitation of the complex results in quenching of both the excited singlet and triplet states of the associated porphyrin. The singlet-state lifetime decreases from 10 ns for the free porphyrin to 1.5 ns in the presence of 16PC4 at low solution ionic strengths. In addition, evidence is presented for triplet-state quenching within the complex with k _q= (1.1 ± 0.1) × 10⁴ s^?1. The mechanism of quenching is tentatively assigned to electron transfer from either the excited singlet or excited triplet state of the porphyrin to the ground state of the 16PC4.