Donor‐Linked Fullerenes: Photoinduced electron transfer and its potential application

Redox‐active fullerenes can be covalently bound to a variety of donors, their photophysical properties have been investigated. Their photochemical processes. Including electron transfer and energy transfer, are varied, depending on the donor, linkage between the donor and C 60 , and solvent. Regardless of the solvent and linkage, the charge‐separated state is produced efficiently in zinc porphyrin‐C 60 systems, showing that C 6o is a good electron acceptor. The most intriguing characteristic of C 60 in electron transfer is that C 60 accelerates photoinduced charge separation and retards charge recombination in the dark. The long‐lived charge‐transfer state: of the C 60 –porphyrin dyad was successfully converted to photocurrent using a self‐assembled monolayer technique. These findings will provide a new strategy for the design and synthesis of artificial photosynthetic systems and photoactive materials using C 60 as a building block.