646 CHINESE OPTICS LETTERS / Vol. 7, No. 7 / July 10, 2009
Direct observation of the ultrafast energy transfer in a
porphyrin and ruthenium dyad
Han Shen (沈沈沈 涵涵涵)
1
, Hui Wang (王王王 惠惠惠)
1∗
, Jie Liu (刘刘刘 杰杰杰)
2
, Yong Shen (沈沈沈 勇勇勇)
2
,
Jinwang Huang (黄黄黄锦锦锦汪汪汪)
2
, and Liangnian Ji (计计计亮亮亮年年年)
1,2
1
State Key Lab oratory of Optoelectronic Materials and Technologies, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou 510275, China
2
Key Lab oratory of Bioinorganic and Synthetic Chemistry of Ministry of Education,
School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou 510275, China
∗
E-mail: stswh@mail.sysu.edu.cn
Received September 5, 2008
The luminescence dynamics of a p olypyridyl ruthenium II [Ru(phen)
2
(ip)]
2+
and 5,10,15,20-
tetraphenylporphyrin (H
2
TPP) dyad have been measured by using time-resolved fluorescence sp ectroscopy.
The transient luminescent spectra of the dyad show an ultrafast energy transfer within 300 ps after pho-
to excitation of the [Ru(phen)
2
(ip)]
2+
at 453 nm. However, no energy transfer has been observed as the
excitation wavelength is 400 nm, corresponding to the absorption peak of H
2
TPP. The origin of the energy
transfer from [Ru(phen)
2
(ip)]
2+
to H
2
TPP has been analyzed according to the F¨orster energy-transfer
theory.
OCIS co des: 320.7100, 260.2160.
doi: 10.3788/COL20090707.0646.
The organic donor-bridge-acceptor (DBA) dyads have
attracted much attention in recent years because of their
potential application in the nano-molecular devices
[1,2]
.
In these systems, the electron and energy transfer from D
to A is dominant to decide the device performance
[2−10]
.
Ultrafast dynamics have been widely studied by using
ultrafast fluorescence spectrossopy
[11−13]
. Porphyrin and
ruthenium are usually used as the model molecules to
investigate the electron and energy transfer processes in
these DBA systems
[14−16]
. Flamigni et al. studied the
electron transfer in PH
2
-Ru and PZn-Ru dyads. They
estimated the electron transfer rate (about 10
10
s
−1
)
from porphyrin to Ru complex by the measurement of
the luminescence lifetime of the porphyrin
[3]
. Harriman
et al. measured the transient luminescence in two kinds
of PZn-Ru dyads
[17]
. By fitting the luminescence decays
by a two-exponential function and calculating the energy
transfer rate, they suggested that the energy transfer
from ruthenium to porphyrin existed after the photoex-
citation of ruthenium molecules. The energy transfer
rate k
et
was about 10
7
s
−1[17]
. Up to now, the energy
transfers rate k
et
is usually estimated by measuring the
luminescence lifetimes of the free donor and the donor
in DBA systems
[3,18,19]
. However, this may be inac-
curate if there is other mechanism of the luminescence
quenching
[20,21]
. In this letter, we report our investiga-
tion of the energy transfer in a polypyridyl ruthenium (II)
([Ru(phen)
2
(ip)]
2+
and porphyrin monomer: 5,10,15,20-
tetraphenylporphyrin (H
2
TPP) dyad, by measuring the
luminescence dynamics. The time resolved luminescence
spectra show the ultrafast energy transfer within 300 ps
after photoexcitation of the [Ru(phen)
2
(ip)]
2+
at 453 nm.
However, no energy transfer is observed as the excitation
wavelength is 400 nm, corresponding to the absorption
peak of H
2
TPP. The origin of the energy transfer from
[Ru(phen)
2
(ip)]
2+
to H
2
TPP has b een analyzed accord-
ing to the F¨orster energy-transfer theory.
The method of the synthesis of the [Ru(phen)
2
(ip)]
2+
and H
2
TPP dyad has been previously reported
[22,23]
.
The structure of the [Ru(phen)
2
(ip)]
2+
and H
2
TPP dyad
linked by a butyl chain is shown in Fig. 1. The sam-
ple solution in CH
2
Cl
2
was contained in a quartz cell
with 1-mm thickness. The concentration was about
2 µmol /L. The transient luminescence was measured by
using the time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy. The
laser pulse was generated by a Nd:YAG laser (PL2143)
and an optical parametric generation (OPG) system
(PG401SH/DFG2-10) with a 22-ps pulse width, a repeti-
tion rate of 10 Hz, a pulse energy of 160 µJ, and a wave-
length of 453 nm. The laser pulses selectively excited
[Ru(phen)
2
(ip)]
2+
. The transient luminescences from
the [Ru(phen)
2
(ip)]
2+
and H
2
TPP dyad through a pair
of lenses and a spectrometer were recorded by a streak
camera (Hamamatsu C1587), which has a resolution of
20 ps and a charge-coupled device (CCD. Hamamatsu
C4742-95). The laser pulses from a Ti:sapphire laser
(Spectra Physics) with a 130-fs pulse width, a power of
17.5 µW, and a wavelength of 400 nm were used to excite
H
2
TPP. The emission from samples was recorded by a
spectrometer (Hamamatsu C5094) and a streak camera
(Hamamatsu C6860) with a resolution <5 ps and a CCD
(Hamamatsu C4742-95).
Figure 2 shows the absorption spectra of
[Ru(phen)
2
(ip)]
2+
, H
2
TPP, and the dyad.
Fig. 1. Structure of the [Ru(phen)
2
(ip)]
2+
and H
2
TPP dyad.
1671-7694/2009/070646-04
c
° 2009 Chinese Optics Letters