Metal-centered photoinduced electron transfer reduction of a gold(III) porphyrin cation linked with a zinc porphyrin to produce a long-lived charge-separated state in nonpolar solvents.

Photoexcitation of an electron donor-acceptor linked dyad containing gold(III) and zinc(II) porphyrins (ZnPQ-AuIIIPQ+) results in electron transfer from the singlet excited state of ZnPQ to the metal center of AuPQ+ to produce the charge-separated state (ZnPQ*+-AuIIPQ) which has a long lifetime (10 mus) in nonpolar solvents such as cyclohexane and toluene.