Probing Electronic Communication and Excited-State Dynamics in the Unprecedented Ferrocene-Containing Zinc MB-DIPY

The electronic communication between two ferrocene groups in the electron-deficient expanded aza-BODIPY analogue of zinc manitoba-dipyrromethene (MB-DIPY) was probed by spectroscopic, electrochemical, spectroelectrochemical, and theoretical methods. The excited-state dynamics involved sub-ps formation of the charge-separated state in the organometallic zinc MB-DIPYs, followed by recovery of the ground state via charge recombination in 12 ps. The excited-state behavior was contrasted with that observed in the parent complex that lacked the ferrocene electron donors and has a much longer excited-state lifetime (670 ps for the singlet state). Much longer decay times observed for the parent complex without ferrocene confirm that the main quenching mechanism in the ferrocene-containing 4 is reflective of the ultrafast ferrocene-to-MB-DIPY core charge transfer (CT).