Photophysical and photochemical parameters of octakis (benzylthio) phthalocyaninato zinc, aluminium and tin: Red shift index concept in solvent effect on the ground state absorption of zinc phthalocyanine derivatives

This paper addresses the synthesis of octa-substituted benzylthio metallophthalocyanines (OBTMPcs) that contain the central metal ions of Zn2+, Al3+ and Sn4+. The ground state absorption of ZnPc(SR)8 (OBTZnPc) along with the ZnPc derivatives, well documented in literature were used to study a new concept called the red shift index (RsI). The concept is based on the empirical values of RsI of the different complexes in solvent media. Unequivocally, parameters used in this paper show strong correlations that are consistent with the results obtained. For instance, RsI of the complexes tend to increase as the refractive index, nD, and solvent donor, DN, of solvent increases. Photodegradation (photobleaching) quantum yield, ϕd measurements of these compounds show that they are highly photostable, ϕd (0.03–0.33 × 10−5). The triplet quantum yield, ϕT (0.40–0.53) and the triplet lifetime, τT (610–810 μs) are within the typical range for metallophthalocyanines in DMSO. The photosensitisation efficiency, SΔ, is relatively high for all the molecules (0.74–0.90).