Porphyrin-fullerene photosynthetic model systems with rotaxane and catenane architectures

Routes for the synthesis of a series of [2]rotaxanes and [2]catenanes incorporating porphyrin, ferrocene and fullerene moieties by the Sauvage metal template technique are described. Photophysical studies on these materials show that excitation of the porphyrin component causes a series of events along an energy gradient leading to long-lived long distance charge-separated radical pair states with lifetimes as long as 32 mu s in tetrahydrofuran solution at ambient temperatures.