• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.31 no.12
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• pp.3771-3776
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• 2010

The dynamics of the $CN^-$-ligated ferric cytochrome c (CytcCN) in $D_2O$ at 283 K following Q-band photoexcitation at 575 nm was observed using femtosecond time-resolved vibrational spectroscopy. The equilibrium vibrational spectrum of the CN stretching mode of CytcCN shows two overlapping bands: one main band (82%) at $2122\;cm^{-1}$ with $23\;cm^{-1}$ full width at half maximum (fwhm) and the other band (18%) at $2116\;cm^{-1}$ with $7\;cm^{-1}$ fwhm. The time-resolved spectra show bleaching of the CN fundamental mode of CytcCN and two absorption features at lower energies. The bleach signal and both absorption features are all formed within the time resolution of the experiment (< 200 fs) and decay with a life time of 1.9 ps. One transient absorption feature, appearing immediately red to the bleach signal, results from the thermal excitation of low-frequency modes of the heme that anharmonically couple to the CN fundamental mode, thereby shifting the CN mode to lower energies. The shift of the CN mode decays with a lifetime of 2 ps, equivalent to the time scale for vibrational cooling of the low-frequency heme modes. The other transient absorption feature, which is 3.3 times weaker than the bleach signal and shifted $27\;cm^{-1}$ toward lower energies, is attributed to the CN mode in an electronically excited state where the CN bond is weakened with a lowered extinction coefficient. These observations suggest that photoexcited CytcCN mainly undergoes ultrafast radiationless relaxation, causing photo-deligation of $CN^-$ from CytcCN highly inefficient. As also observed in $CN^-$-ligated myoglobin, inefficient ligand photodissociation might be a general property of $CN^-$-ligated ferric hemes.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.446-452
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• 2003

Some new nanohybrid materials have been synthesized by intercalating the oxotitanium(IV) meso-tetrakis(4- sulfonatophenyl) porphyrin$(O=Ti^{(IV)} TSPP)$ into the Zn/Al layered double hydroxides (LDHs), and their structures and photophysical properties have been investigated by various laser spectroscopic techniques. According to the XRD pattern of the synthesized nanohybrid materials, the macrocycle plane of $O=Ti^{(IV)}$ TSPP are grafted perpendicular to the LDH layers. The $O=Ti^{(IV)}$ TSPP-intercalated LDH exhibits band broadening of the absorption spectrum and a blue shift of Q-band as compared to that observed in solution. Resonance Raman spectral measurements demonstrate that the positively charged LDHs give rise to a slight decrease of the electronic density of the porphyrin ring accompanying a small change of the electronic distribution of the $O=Ti^{(IV)}$ TSPP. Consequently the LDH environment affects the energies of the two highest occupied molecular orbitals (HOMOs) of the $O=Ti^{(IV)}$) TSPP, $a_{1u}$ and $a_{2u}$, producing a mixed orbital character. Being consistent with these electronic structural changes of $O=Ti^{(IV)}$ TSPP in LDH, both the fluorescence spectral change and the fsdiffuse reflectance transient measurements imply that the photoexcitation of the $O=Ti^{(IV)}$ TSPP intercalated into LDH undergoes fast relaxation to the O=Ti(IV) $TSPP^+-LDH^- $charge transfer (CT) state within a few picoseconds, followed by a photoinduced electron transfer between the O=Ti(IV) TSPP and LDHs with a rate constant greater than %1×10^{10}S^{-1}$. No evidence is found for back electron transfer. In conclusion, the $O=Ti^{(IV)}$ TSPP intercalated LDH seems to be a possible candidate for an artificial reaction center for an efficient solar energy conversion system.