Ultrafast fluorescence investigation of excitation energy transfer in different dendritic core branched structures

The mechanism of energy transport in branching structures is suggestively related to the geometry of the multichromophore architecture. In organic conjugated dendrimers, both incoherent (hopping) and coherent energy transfer processes have been observed from different dendritic architectures with different building blocks. In this communication, we report the investigation of three fundamental dendritic architectures (G0) with the same attached chromophores, but with different core atoms, C, N, and P. The synthesis of a phosphorus-containing G0 system with distyrylbenzene chromophores is provided. These three systems provide a comparison by which the relative interaction of branching chromophores can be compared on the basis of their different branching centers. Ultrafast fluorescence anisotropy measurements provide a dual measure of the geometry of the chromophores around the different central units as well as the strength of the interactions among chromophores. The nitrogen-cored system appeared to have both the strongest coupling of chromophore excitation as well as the most planar geometry of the three. Interestingly, the phosphorus system appeared to have the least planar geometry, and its interaction strength was found to be stronger than that observed for the carbon system. These results provide a comparison of the energy migration dynamics of the most common and new dendritic architectures with applications for light emission and light harvesting.