Photo-initiated ion formation from octaethyl-porphyrin and its zinc chelate as a model for electron transfer in reaction centers.

Ion formation from the reaction of triplet (T) and ground state (P) octaethyl-porphyrin (OEP) and zinc octaethyl porphyrin (ZnOEP) and the corresponding cross-reactions have been measured in dry acetonitrile. A uniquely sensitive and fast conductance apparatus and a pulsed dye laser allowed the measurements to be made at the necessarily very low concentrations of T. The hemogeneous reaction of T (ZnOEP) and P (ZnOEP) occurs with rat constant k(1) = 2.0 x 10(8) M(-1)s(-1) and an ion yield of 67%. The similar homogeneous reaction of OEP has k(2) = 1.3 x 10(8)M(-1)s(-1) but an ion yield of only 3%. The cross-reaction of T (OEP) with P (ZnOEP) has k(3) = 1.5 x 10(8) M(-1)s(-1) and an ion yield of 27%, while the inverse cross-reaction of T (ZnOEP) with P (OEP) has k(4) = 3 x 10(8) M(-1)s(-1) and an ion yield of 20%. Thus, the rate constants are only slightly affected but the yields are sensitive to the porphyrin. The possible formation of the heterogeneous ions ZnOEP+ + OEP-, thermodynamically favored by 0.3 V over the homogeneous ions, has little influence on the observed yields. The data are explained by electron transfer and Coulomb field-electon spin-controlled escape of the initial ion-pair.