Acidâbase reaction at the bridge in a donorâacceptor molecule can influence intramolecular electron-transfer reactions; this has been demonstrated in boronate ester bridged zinc porphyrinâdiimide dyads in which intramolecular electron transfer reaction has been completely suppressed by coordination of Fâ on the bridge boron.
Three sets of dyads, in which a zinc-porphyrin (ZP) electron donor is connected to an aromatic diimide electron acceptor,either pyromellitimide (PI) or naphthalene-1,8:4,5-tetracarboxylic acid diimide (NI), via a boronate-ester bridge, a piperidine bridge, and a 1,3-dioxolane bridge, respectively, were prepared for the purpose of control of intramolecular electron transfer (ET) by acid-base reactions at the connecting bridge. Boronate-ester bridge is a Lewis acidic site and confers a chance to regulate intramolecular ET reaction upon base coordination. This has been demonstrated by suppression of photoinduced ET from ZP to PI or NI in highly electron-pair donating solvents or upon addition of a fluoride anion. To extend this strategy to control of ET-path selectivity, we prepared triad 18, which consists of a ZP donor bearing NI and PI accepters at similar distances through a boronate-ester bridge and an acetal bridge, respectively. Photoexcitation of 18 in a free form led to intramolecular ET from (1)ZP* preferentially to. NI, but the ET path was completely sw itched toward PI in F--coordinated form without a serious drop in the rate, constituting a novel ET-switching molecular system.