Sensitized Photochemical CO2 Reduction by Hetero-Pacman Compounds Linking a ReI Tricarbonyl with a Porphyrin Unit

The hetero-Pacman architecture places two different metal coordination sites in close proximity, which can support efficient energy and/or electron transfer and allow for cooperative activation of small molecules. Here, the synthesis of dyads consisting of a porphyrin unit as photosensitizer and a rhenium unit as catalytically active site, which are held together by the rigid xanthene backbone, is presented. Mononuclear [(NN)Re(CO)(3)(Cl)] complexes for CO2 reduction in which NN represents a bidentate diimine ligand (e.g., bipyridine or phenanthroline) lack light absorption in the visible region, resulting in poor photocatalysis upon illumination with visible light. To improve their visible-light absorption, we have focused on the incorporation of a strongly absorbing free base or zinc porphyrin unit. Resulting photocatalytic experiments showed a strong dependence of the catalytic performance on both the type of photosensitizer and the excitation wavelengths. Most notably, the intramolecular hetero-Pacman system containing a zinc porphyrin unit showed much better catalytic activity in the visible region (excitation wavelengths >450 nm) than the free base porphyrin version or the corresponding mononuclear rhenium compound or an intermolecular system comprised of a 1:1 mixture of the mononuclear analogues.