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Long-lived photoinduced charge separation in a redox system trapped in a sol–gel glass

Nature volume 355, pages 240–242 (1992)Cite this article

Abstract

A KEY feature in the mechanism of photosynthesis is the initial storage of a substantial fraction of the light energy in the form of a long-lived radical pair1. In attempts to mimic this process in artificial systems2–4, impressive progress has been made in increasing the efficiency of the charge-separation reaction between an excited photosensitizer and an appropriate electron acceptor, but prevention of the energy-wasting back-reaction to neutral species still constitutes a major challenge. The back-reaction limits the length of time during which charge separation (and thus energy storage) can be maintained. Here we report exceedingly long-lived (up to a few hours) photoinduced charge separation in an artificial photosynthetic system that does not require a secondary substrate to react with the charged species. Our system uses pyrene (Py*) as the photosensitized electron donor and N,N'-dimethy 1-4,4'-bipyridinium (methyl viologen, MV2+) as the electron acceptor, both immobilized in a porous sol–gel silica glass5. The redox reaction is carried out by the mediation of a third mobile charge carrier in the intrapore space6. The spatial separation between the donor and acceptor inhibits the back-reaction to produce the long lifetimes of the charge-separated pair.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Chemistry, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, 91904, Israel

    Anny Slama-Schwok, Michael Ottolenghi & David Avnir

Authors
  1. Anny Slama-Schwok
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  2. Michael Ottolenghi
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  3. David Avnir
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Slama-Schwok, A., Ottolenghi, M. & Avnir, D. Long-lived photoinduced charge separation in a redox system trapped in a sol–gel glass. Nature 355, 240–242 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1038/355240a0

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