Energy- and electron-transfer processes in molecular and supramolecular donor-acceptor systems are of current interest in order to develop light-energy harvesting systems through designing covalently linked donor-acceptor systems or utilizing self-assembled donor-acceptor systems. The research presented in this dissertation deals with the electrochemical, anion binding, and photochemical studies of various oxoporphyrinogen (OxPs), porphyrin, corrole, and phenothiazine systems. The first chapter provides a brief introduction to the material discussed in the subsequent chapters. The second chapter discusses the bromination of meso-tetraarylporphyrings and how that affects their electrochemical, catalytic, and other properties. Bromination of these porphyrins and oxoporphyrinogens allow the HOMO-LUMO gap to increase revealing blue-shifted absorption. Brominated OxPs and bis-crown ether OxP self-assembled with anions depending on strength of the anion and size of the binding site. The addition of crown ethers allows a cation binding site which makes a self-assembled donor-acceptor supramolecular system.Chapters 5 and 6 discuss a series of donor-acceptor conjugates based on zinc porphyrin as the electron donor and copper(III) corrole as the electron acceptor. These studies illustrate the importance of copper(III) corrole as a potent electron acceptor for the construction of energy harvesting model compounds, and constitute the first definitive proof of charge separation in ZnP-CuIIIC systems.Chapter 7 summarizes several interesting observations made in the present study on DSSCs built on two types of phenothiazine dyes having one or two cyanocinnamic acid groups.

Mother nature has laid out a beautiful blueprint to capture sunlight and convert to usable form of energy. Inspired by nature, donor-acceptor systems are predominantly studied for their light harvesting applications. This dissertation explores new donor-acceptor systems by studying their photochemical properties useful in building artificial photosynthetic systems. The systems studied are divided into phthalocyanine-porphyrin-fullerene-based, perylenediimide-based, and aluminum porphyrin-based donor-acceptor systems. Further effect of solvents in determining the energy or electron transfer was studied in chapter 6. Such complex photosynthetic analogues are designed and characterized using UV-vis, fluorescence spectroscopy, differential pulse voltammetry and cyclic voltammetry. Using ultrafast transient absorption spectroscopy, the excited state properties are explored. The information obtained from the current study is critical in getting one step closer to building affordable and sustainable solar energy harvesting devices which could easily unravel the current energy demands.

In donor-acceptor systems, ultrafast interfacial charge transfer (CT), charge separation (CS) and charge recombination (CR), are among the key factors in determining the overall efficiency of the optoelectronic devices. In this regime, precise knowledge of the mechanisms of these processes on the femtosecond scale is urgently required. In this dissertation, using femtosecond transient absorption and mid-Infrared spectroscopies along with steady-state absorption and emission measurements, we are not only able to address the fundamental understanding of these ultrafast dynamical processes, but also control them at various inter- and intramolecular electron donor-electron acceptor systems. In the photoinduced intermolecular charge transfer systems, where donor and acceptor are separated from each other, three systems have been investigated; cationic poly[(9,9-di(3,3′-N,N′-trimethylammonium) propyl fluorenyl-2,7-diyl)-alt-co-(9,9-dioctyl-fluorenyl-2,7-diyl)] diiodide salt (PFN) conjugated polymer donor with 1,4-dicyanobenzene (DCB) acceptor, negatively charged porphyrin (POS) donor with positively charged (PFN) acceptor, and finally, positively charged (PFN) donor with negatively charged graphene carboxylate (GC) acceptor. Based on studying these three systems, we were able to explore some important factors and deriving forces including chemical structure, electrostatic interactions, energy band alignment, hydrogen bonding and solvents with different polarities and capabilities for hydrogen bonding that influence the rate and efficiency of the charge transfer at the interfaces of these donor-acceptor systems. For instance, unlike the conventional understanding of the key role of hydrogen bonding in promoting the charge-transfer process, our results reveal that the hydrogen-bonding increases the spacing between the donor and acceptor units which significantly hinders the charge-transfer process. On the other hand, in the photoinduced intramolecular charge transfer systems, where donor and acceptor are chemically attached to each other, we investigate the effects of conjugation length on photoinduced charge transfer in π-conjugated oligomers naphthalene diimide (NDI) end-capped oligo(phenylene ethynylene)s (PEn-NDI), and poly-(phenylene ethynylene) (PPE) donor backbone with (NDI) acceptor end-caps (PPE-NDI-n) systems. The results of femtosecond transient absorption and mid-IR spectroscopies show that the charge separation occurs on the 1-10 ps time scale with the rates decreasing as oligomer length increases in PEn-NDI system. In addition, in PPE-NDI-n system, the fluorescence quenching measurements indicate very efficient photoinduced electron transfer from the PPE backbone to the NDI end-groups, and the transfer efficiency increases with decreasing the number of units. Finally, the new physical insights reported in this thesis provide an understanding of several key variable components involved, thus paving the way toward the exploitation of efficient charge transfer at donor-acceptor interfaces, which is the key element and urgently required for optimal optoelectronic-device performance.

Molecular engineering of donor-acceptor dyads and multimodular systems to control the yield and lifetime of charge separation is one of the key goals of artificial photosynthesis for harvesting sustainably solar energy. The design of the donor-acceptor systems mimic a part of green plants and bacterial photosynthetic processes. The photochemical events in natural photosynthesis involve the capturing and funneling of solar energy by a group of well-organized chromophores referred to as an ‘antenna' system causing an electron transfer into the ‘reaction center,' where an electron transfer processes occur resulting a long-lived charge separated state. Over the last two to three decades, many efforts have been directed by the scientific community designing of multi-modular systems that are capable of capturing most of the useful sunlight and generating charge separated states of prolonged lifetimes with adequate amounts of energy. In this dissertation, we report on the design and synthesis of donor–acceptor conjugates with the goal of modulating the yield and lifetime of their charge separated states and hence, improving the conversion of light energy into chemical potential. In simple donor-acceptor systems, generally, the energy and electron transfer events originate from the singlet excited state of the donor or acceptor and can store the greatest amount of energy but must be fast to out compete intersystem crossing. To address this limitation, we have designed novel donor –acceptor conjugates that use high-energy triplet sensitizers in which electron transfer is initiated from the long lived triplet state of the donor. The triplet photosensitizers used were palladium(II) porphyrin and platinum(II) porphyrin. Heavy metal effect in these porphyrins promoted intersystem crossing and the energies of their excited state was quite high. For the case of palladium (II) porphyrin the energy stored was found to 1.89 eV and that of platinum(II) porphyrin 1.84 eV. In addition to using triplet photosensitizers as donors, we have used donors that are difficult to oxidize and hence producing long lived charge separated states with adequate amount of stored energy. The system that was used for this study is zinc porphyrin with meso-aryl pentafluorophenyl substituents and fullerene, C60 as the acceptor. The presence of fluorine substituents on zinc porphyrin makes it harder to undergo oxidation. When this high potential donor-acceptor system undergoes a photoinduced charge-separation, the estimated energy stored was found to be 1.70 eV, one of the highest reported in literature so far. To further extend the lifetime of the charge separated states generated in this high-potential zinc porphyrin-fullerene dyad a pyridine functionalized tetrathiafulvalene was axially coordinated to the Zn metal producing a supramolecular triad capable of producing long-lived charge separated state. In a subsequent study, a multi-modular donor-acceptor system composed of a porphyrin, fullerene (C60) and a BF2-chelated dipyrromethene (BODIPY) with a supramolecular arrangement in the form of porphyrin-BODIPY-C60, one of the few reported in literature. By selectively exciting BODIPY and ZnP moieties, efficient singlet-singlet energy transfer from 1BODIPY * to ZnP in toluene was observed in the case of the dyad ZnP-BODIPY. However, when ZnP is excited, electron transfer occurred with the formation ZnP.+-BODIPY-C60.- charge separated state persisting for microseconds.

This dissertation research work focuses on the investigation of novel donor-acceptor systems elucidating their photochemical properties, anion binding, and their potential application in the development of artificial photosynthetic systems. The explored systems are based on oxoporphyrinogen (OxPs), porphyrins, fullerene, and boron dipyrromethene (BODIPY) based donor-acceptor systems. The photochemical properties of novel molecular systems were elucidated using UV-vis spectroscopy, fluorescence spectroscopy, electrochemical methods, computational calculations, and ultrafast transient absorption spectroscopy. A novel BODIPY-oxoporphyrinogen dyad which is able to bind with fluoride anion promoting the excited state ultrafast electron and energy transfer events mimicking the primary events in natural photosynthesis was introduced. Further, self-assembly of supramolecular complexes based on oxoporphyrinogens, fullerene, and different zinc porphyrin dimers was explored. The formed self-assembled complexes have shown photoinduced electron transfer. A novel push-pull supramolecular construct based on the spiro-locked N-heterocycle-fused zinc porphyrin was studied. The excited state charge separation and stabilization of this push-pull system was enhanced by the complexation with fluoride anion. Also, the effect of BODIPY functionalization and linkers on the electron transfer properties of a series of carbazole–BODIPY and phenothiazine-BODIPY dyads were investigated. These findings are important to develop advanced and efficient BODIPY-based donor-acceptor systems for efficient light harvesting applications. The entire study aims to expand our understanding of these systems and contribute towards the advancement of sustainable energy technologies.

The literature surrounding organic small-molecule donor-acceptor systems is summarised for a range of optoelectronic applications (OLEDs, OPVs, OFETs etc.). There is a focus on the key building blocks: 1,3,4-oxadiazole (OXD), diphenylamine (DPA), carbazole (Cbz) and fluorene (F). The incorporation of such moieties into various donor-acceptor systems is discussed with further reference to selected alternative organic donor and acceptor systems. The syntheses of novel bipolar molecules based on a donor-spacer-acceptor (DPA/Cbz-F-OXD) structure and the incorporation of these molecules into single-layer OLEDs is presented. It is demonstrated how the emission colour can be tuned from green to deep blue by systematic manipulation of the structure. A significant result is that high efficiency accompanied with pure, deep blue emission in single-layer OLEDs can be achieved with this structural motif. The incorporation of these materials as part of a simple two-component blend to produce white OLEDs is presented and the modification of the materials to improve electron-transport properties is discussed. The synthesis of DPA-bridge-OXD wire systems is presented with the use of oligo-p-phenyleneethynylene units as a bridge of varying length to investigate the effect on charge transfer between the donor and acceptor. Photophysical studies demonstrate the change in absorption, emission and fluorescence lifetimes as the length scale of the molecules is altered. The synthesis of a series of planarised and twisted DPA-bridge-OXD systems based upon phenylene linkers is discussed. Finally, a series of DPA-F-OXD-anchor molecules is presented for incorporation into DSSC devices. The synthesis of these materials is described and the suitability of various anchoring groups for DSSCs is analysed through photophysical and device studies.