Spectral luminescence properties of hydroporphyrazine metallo complexes

We have studied the spectral luminescence properties of a zinc complex of dibenzobarreleno-substituted tetraazaisobacteriochlorin (a synthetic tetrapyrrole pigment which is the structural analog of the biologically important chromophore isobacteriochlorin) and a palladium complex of dibenzobarreleno-substituted tetraazachlorin. We have shown that despite the substantial effect of aza-substitution on the electronic structure and the electronic spectra of the tetrapyrrole molecules, the effect of hydrogenation of adjacent pyrrole rings on the spectral luminescence properties is similar in compounds with nitrogen and carbon bridges. As in the free base case, the fluorescence of the studied zinc complex is strongly quenched at 293 K but flares up at 77 K (temperature and viscosity-dependent quenching). To study the substituted Zn-tetraazaisobacteriochlorin, we determined the position of the 0-0 band of the low-intensity transition S₀ → S₂ and showed that the S₂ → S₁ energy difference increases with bridge aza substitution. For the Pd complex of dibenzobarreleno-substituted tetraazachlorin, we could not detect phosphorescence in the near IR region (to 1150 nm); we detected weak fluorescence. Translated from Zhurnal Prikladnoi Spektroskopii, Vol. 75, No. 5, pp. 700–707, September–October, 2008.