Structural Gating Enhances Long-Distance Light-Driven Interfacial Electron Transfer.

ABSTRACT: Structural gating provides a molecular means to transfer electrons preferentially in one desired vectorial direction, a behavior needed for applications in artificial photosynthesis. At the interfaces utilized herein, visible-light absorption by a transition metal complex opens a "structural gate" by planarization of otherwise rotating phenyl rings in p-phenylene ethynylene (PE) bridge units. Planarization provides a conjugated pathway for electron flow toward a conductive oxide surface. Interfacial electron transfer to the oxide restores rotation and closes the gate to the unwanted recombination reaction. This structural gating results in nearly quantitative long-distance (>20 Å) interfacial electron transfer that occurs ∼1000 times faster than transfer in the opposit

SUBMITTER: Loague QR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11613339 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature