Journal of Physical Chemistry B, Vol.120, No.35, 9410-9421, 2016
Ultrafast Time-Resolved Emission and Absorption Spectra of meso-Pyridyl Porphyrins upon Soret Band Excitation Studied by Fluorescence Up-Conversion and Transient Absorption Spectroscopy
A comprehensive study of ultrafast molecular relaxation processes of isomeric meso-(pyridyl) porphyrins (TpyPs) has been carried out by using femtosecond tune-resolved emission and absorption spectroscopic techniques upon pumping at 400 Soret band (B band or S-2), in 4:1 dichloromethane (DCM) and tetrahydrofuran (THF) solvent mixture. By combined studies of fluorescence up-conversion, time-correlated single photon counting, and transient absorption spectroscopic techniques, a complete model with different microscopic rate constants associated with elementary processes involved in electronic manifolds has been reported. Besides, a distinct coherent nuclear wave packet motion in Q(y) state is observed at low-frequency mode, ca. 26 cm(-1) region. Fluorescence up-Conversion studies constitute ultrafast time-resolved emission spectra (TRES) Over the whole emission range (430-710 nm) starting from S-2 state to Q(x) state via Q(y) state. Careful analysis of time profiles of up-converted signals at different emission wavelengths helps to reveal detail molecular dynamics. The observed lifetimes are as indicated: A very fast decay component with 80 +/- 20 fs observed at similar to 435 nm is assigned to the lifetime of S-2 (B) state, whereas being a rise component in the region of between 550 and 710 nm emission wavelength pertaining to Q(y) and Q(x) states, it is attributed to very fast internal conversion (IC) occurring from B -> Q(y), and B -> Q(x) as well. Two distinct components of Q(y) emission decay with similar to 200-300 fs and similar to 1-1.5 ps time constants are due to intramolecular vibrational redistribution (IVR) induced by solute solvent inelastic collisions and vibrational redistribution induced by solute-solvent elastic collision, respectively. The weighted average of these two decay components is assigned as the characteristic lifetime of Q(y), and it ranges between 0.3 and 0.5 ps. An additional similar to 20 +/- 2 ps rise component is observed in Q(x) emission, and it is assigned to the formation time of thermally equilibrated Q(x) state by vibrational cooling/relaxations of excess energy within solvent. This relaxed Q(x) state decays to ground as well as triplet state by 7-8 ns time scale. The femtosecond transient absorption studies of TpyPs in three different excitations at S-2 (400 nit), Q(y) (515 nm), and Qx (590 nm) along with extensive global and target model analysis of TA data exclusively generate the true spectra of each excited species/state with their respective lifetimes along with microscopic rate constants associated with each state. The following five exponential components with lifetime values of 65-70 fs, similar to 0.3-0.5 ps, similar to 20 +/- 2 ps, similar to 7 +/- 1 ns, and 1-2 mu s are observed which are associated with S-2 Q(y) hot Q(x) thermally relaxed Qx and lowest triplet (T-1) states, respectively, when excited at S-2, and four (Q(y), hot Q(x) thermally relaxed Q(x) and lowest triplet (T-1) states) and three (hot Q(x) thermally, relaxed and lowest triplet (T-1) states) states are obtained when excited at 515 nm (Q(y)) and 590-nm (Q(x)), respectively, as expected. The TA results parallel the fluorescence up-conversion studies, and both the results not only Compliment each other but also unveil the ultrafast internal conversion from S-2 to Q(y), S-2 to and Q(y) to Q(x) for all three isomers in a similar fashion with nearly equal characteristic decay times.