Annulated dinuclear metal-free and Zn(II) phthalocyanines: photophysical studies and quantum mechanical calculations

The results of steady-state and time-resolved absorption and fluorescence experiments as well as quantum mechanical density functional theory (DFT) calculations of metal-free and Zn(II) mononuclear and dinuclear (sharing a common benzene ring) phthalocyanines are presented. A detailed comparison between measured and calculated absorption spectra of all compounds is done, showing a good agreement between theory and experiment. The NH tautomerization for phthalocyanines with an extended pi-electron system was shown for the first time at room temperature. The photophysical properties of all possible NH tautomers of metal-free dinuclear Pc have been fully characterized. In the first tautomer, Pc(parallel), both pairs of hydrogen atoms are parallel to the connection line of two Pc units. The maximum of the lowest-energy Q absorption band, lambda abs, in Pc(parallel) is located at 832 nm, whereas the spectral position of the fluorescence maximum lies at lambdafl=837 nm. The second NH tautomer, Pc(perpendicular) (lambdaabs=853 nm, lambdafl=860 nm), presents the two pairs of hydrogen atoms perpendicularly orientated to the covalent axis, and the third one, Pc(mix) (lambdaabs=864 nm, lambdafl=872 nm), contributing in a minor extend to the absorption and fluorescence spectra of the metal-free dinuclear phthalocyanine, has one perpendicular and one parallel pair of hydrogen atoms. Obviously, only one configuration exists in the case of the Zn(II)-containing dinuclear phthalocyanine (lambdaabs=845 nm, lambdafl=852 nm).