Cooperativity in chiroptical sensing with dendritic zinc porphyrins

Zinc porphyrin-appended dendrimers, 12PZn, 18PZn, 24PZn, and 36PZn, containing 12, 18, 24, and 36 zinc porphyrin units, respectively, were synthesized using zinc porphyrin dyad (2PZn) and triad (3PZn) as precursors. Although these dye-functionalized dendrimers all serve as chiroptical sensors for an asymmetric bipyridine (RR- and SS-Py2), the sensing capability is highly dependent on the structure of the dendritic scaffold. 2PZn, which is chiroptically silent toward Py2, turns cooperative and displays a large ICD (induced circular dichroism) response in the visible region when incorporated into 12PZn. Judging from the extents of contribution of each zinc porphyrin unit to the CD amplitudes ([Deltaepsilonmax]), the cooperativity in 24PZn (112 M-1 cm-1) is lower than that in 12PZn (196 M-1 cm-1) and much lower in dendron 4PZn (59 M-1 cm-1). In contrast, 3PZn, which is ICD-active toward Py2, hardly shows such an enhanced cooperativity when incorporated into 18PZn and 36PZn and dendron 6PZn, as well. Absorption spectroscopy suggests some unique conformational characteristics of the zinc porphyrin units in highly cooperative 12PZn.