Red-light operable photosensitizer with symmetry-breaking charge transfer induced intersystem crossing for polymerization of methyl methacrylate

Zafar Mahmood; Shuqing Cai; Noreen Rehmat; Mariangela Di Donato; Jianzhang Zhao; Shanshan Sun; Mingde Li; Yanping Huo; Shaomin Ji

doi:10.1039/d3cc06017a

Red-light operable photosensitizer with symmetry-breaking charge transfer induced intersystem crossing for polymerization of methyl methacrylate

Chem Commun (Camb). 2024 Feb 22;60(17):2385-2388. doi: 10.1039/d3cc06017a.

Authors

Zafar Mahmood¹, Shuqing Cai¹, Noreen Rehmat¹, Mariangela Di Donato², Jianzhang Zhao³, Shanshan Sun⁴, Mingde Li⁴, Yanping Huo¹, Shaomin Ji¹

Affiliations

¹ School of Chemical Engineering and Light Industry, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510006, P. R. China. smji@gdut.edu.cn.
² LENS (European Laboratory for Non-Linear Spectroscopy), Via N. Carrara1, I-50019 Sesto Fiorentino, Italy. didonato@lens.unifi.it.
³ Dalian University of Technology, E-208 West Campus, 2 Ling-Gong Road, Dalian 116024, P. R. China. zhaojzh@dlut.edu.cn.
⁴ Department of Chemistry and Key Laboratory for Preparation and Application of Ordered Structural Materials of Guangdong Province, Shantou University, Shantou, 515063, P. R. China. mdli@stu.edu.cn.

PMID: 38321968
DOI: 10.1039/d3cc06017a

Abstract

We present a red light-activated zinc^II bis(dipyrrin) symmetry breaking charge transfer (SBCT) architecture, showing a large molar absorption coefficient (ε = 15.4 × 10⁴ M^-1 cm^-1), high reactive singlet oxygen generation efficiency (Φ_Δ ≈ 0.8) and long-lived triplet state (τ_T = 150 μs) compared to the donor-acceptor analogue dipyrrin-BF₂ complex, highlighting the superiority of the SBCT approach. For the first time, we demonstrated the potential of a SBCT scaffold in red-light-induced methyl methacrylate (MMA) polymerization, using a dual photocatalyst excitation approach.