Fluorophore(s) Appended Fullerene Dyads and Triads for Probing Photoinduced Energy Transfer: Syntheses, Electronic Structure, and Fluorescence Studies

Fullerene, C₆₀ was functionalized to possess one or two fluorophore entities. The fluorophore–fullerene dyads thus synthesized contain either a naphthalene, pyrene, or fluorene entity while the triads contain either a pyrene or fluorene entity in addition to a naphthalene entity. The redox behavior of these dyads and triads were probed by cyclic voltammetric technique, while the geometry and electronic structures were deduced from ab initio B3LYP/3-21G(*) method. Steady-state emission studies revealed the occurrence of energy transfer from the singlet excited fluorophore to the fullerene entity in the case of the dyads while the occurrence of step-by-step sequential energy transfer is envisioned in the case of the triads. A better ‘antenna-effect’ owing to the extended range of excitation wavelength to induce energy transfer to the appended fullerene has been achieved in the case of the triads.