Photophysical and photosensitizing properties of brominated porphycenes

A heavy atom, bromine, was directly substituted into the porphycene macrocycle to promote intersystem crossing by way of spin-orbit coupling. The singlet oxygen production ability of the porphycene is dramatically enhanced, and the highest value of 0.95 for the quantum yield of singlet oxygen generation (Phi(Delta)) was obtained for the dibrominated porphycene by visible light excitation.