Gold Tris(carboxyphenyl)corroles as Multifunctional Materials: Room Temperature Near-IR Phosphorescence and Applications to Photodynamic Therapy and Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

Two amphiphilic corroles—5,10,15-tris(3-carboxyphenyl)corrole (H3[mTCPC]) and 5,10,15-tris(4-carboxyphenyl)corrole (H3[pTCPC])—and their gold complexes have been synthesized, and their photophysical properties and photovoltaic behavior have been investigated. Like other nonpolar gold corroles, Au[mTCPC] and Au[pTCPC] were both found to exhibit room temperature phosphorescence in deoxygenated solutions with quantum yields of ∼0.3% and triplet lifetimes of ∼75 μs. Both compounds exhibited significant activity as dyes in photodynamic therapy experiments and in dye-sensitized solar cells. Upon irradiation at 435 nm, both Au corroles exhibited significant phototoxicity against AY27 rat bladder cancer cells while the free-base corroles proved inactive. Dye-sensitized solar cells constructed using the free bases H3[mTCPC] and H3[pTCPC] exhibited low efficiencies (≪1%), well under that obtained with 5,10,15,20-tetrakis(4-carboxyphenyl)porphyrin, H2[pTCPP] (1.9%, cf. N719 9.5%). Likewise, Au[pTCPC] proved inefficient, with an efficiency of ∼0.2%. By contrast, Au[mTCPC] proved remarkably effective, exhibiting an open-circuit voltage (Voc) of 0.56 V, a short-circuit current of 8.7 mA cm–2, a fill factor of 0.72, and an efficiency of 3.5%