Photophysical and photochemical studies of sulphonated non-transition metal phthalocyanines in aqueous and non-aqueous media

The photophysical and photochemical parameters for mixed sulphonated metallophthalocyanine complexes (AlPcSmix, SiPcSmix, GePcSmix, SnPcSmix, and ZnPcSmix) are reported in phosphate buffer saline (PBS, pH 7.4), PBS containing the surfactant Triton X-100, and in dimethylsulphoxide (DMSO). The ground state spectra of SiPcSmix, GePcSmix and SnPcSmix show splitting of the Q-band in DMSO, but the fluorescence spectra have only one band, suggesting that only some components of the mixed complexes fluoresce. In general the quantum yields of fluorescence (ΦF) were smaller in DMSO compared to the aqueous solvents, while quantum yields of triplet state (ΦT) were larger in DMSO. Triplet lifetimes were much lower in aqueous solutions (compared to DMSO) due to the fact that water absorbs strongly around 1108 nm, which corresponds to the triplet energy of a metallophthalocyanine complex. The MPcSmix complexes quenched hydroquinone, and the Stern–Volmer constants follow the order: AlPcSmix > SiPcSmix > GePcSmix > ZnPcSmix > SnPcSmix which is the order of the extinction coefficients (of the low energy band for complexes with split Q-band) of these molecules. The rate constants for fluorescence, intersystem crossing, internal conversion, and photodegradation were determined from the hydroquinone quenching data