Catching metallic nitride endohedral fullerenes in organic and aqueous media

Two bis-tetraphenylporphyrin tweezers-like conjugates bearing different linkers have been characterized by means of electrochemical and photophysical methods. The thrust of this work was the complexation of these bis-porphyrins with C[Formula: see text] and metallic nitride endohedral fullerenes (MNEF) like Sc3N@C[Formula: see text] in organic and in aqueus media — studied by a combination of steady-state and time-resolved spectroscopies. In the context of charge separation evidence for the formation of the 1a[Formula: see text]-Sc3N@C[Formula: see text] and 1c[Formula: see text]-Sc3N@C[Formula: see text] charge separated states in organic and aqueous media, respectively, came from transient absorption spectroscopy. Multi-wavelength analyses afforded charge separated state lifetimes of around 400 ps.