Opposing responses elicited by positively charged phthalocyanines in the presence of CdTe quantum dots

Tetrapositively charged phthalocyanines and CdTe quantum dots (QDs) capped with thioglycolic acid (TGA) and mercaptopropionic acid (MPA) were synthesized. The response of the tetrapositively charged zinc phthalocyanines in the presence of quantum dots was studied. Aggregation and charge transfer were observed for [tetramethyl-2,(3)-[tetra-(2-mercaptopyridinephthalocyaninato)]zinc(II)]⁴⁺ (TmTMPyZnPc), however aggregation proved to be the more prominent process of the two. Fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) was observed with [tetramethyl-2,(3)-[tetra-(2-pyridyloxyphthalocyaninato)]zinc(II)]⁴⁺ (TmTPyZnPc). In the FRET study the efficiency of FRET with TmTPyZnPc was determined to be 21% for both MPA and TGA capped CdTe QDs. For the charge transfer study the fluorescence of the quantum dots was quenched by the TmTMPyZnPc used, and from these quenching studies the quenching constants, binding constants and number of binding sites on the quantum dots were determined.