Electron Transfer in Porphyrin Complexes in Different Solvents

Abstract

The electron transfer in different solvents is investigated for systems consisting of donor, bridge and acceptor. It is assumed that vibrational relaxation is much faster than the electron transfer. Electron transfer rates and final populations of the acceptor state are calculated numerically and in an approximate fashion analytically. In wide parameter regimes these solutions are in very good agreement. The theory is applied to the electron transfer in ${\rm H_2P-ZnP-Q}$ with free-base porphyrin (${\rm H_2P}$) being the donor, zinc porphyrin (${\rm ZnP}$) the bridge, and quinone (${\rm Q}$) the acceptor. It is shown that the electron transfer rates can be controlled efficiently by changing the energy of the bridging level which can be done by changing the solvent. The effect of the solvent is determined for different models.