Dependence of rate constants for photoinduced charge separation and dark charge recombination on the free energy of reaction in restricted-distance porphyrin-quinone molecules

Rate constants for both radical ion pair formation and recombination in porphyrin - quinone donor-acceptor molecules are reported. The ion pair formation and recombination depend on the exothermicity of the respective electron-transfer reaction in a manner previously reported. The question as to what fraction of energy change is due to relaxation processes involving the solvent vs. the porphyrin - quinone molecules has not been answered by these studies. However, the measured reorganization energy was found to be approximately solvent independent. It was observed that in these molecules the donor-acceptor distance is restricted, and the highly exothermic charge recombination reactions do not produce electronically excited states to the donor or acceptor. 11 references, 2 figures.