Porphyrin Antennas on Carbon Nanodots: Excited State Energy and Electron Transduction

We report the synthesis and electron donor–acceptor features of a novel nanohybrid, in which the light-harvestingand electron-donating properties of ameso-tetraarylporphyrin(TArP) are combined with the electron-accepting features ofnitrogen-doped carbon nanodots (NCNDs). In particular,inan ultrafast process (> 1012s@1), visible-light excitation trans-forms the strongly quenched porphyrin singlet excited statesinto short-lived (225 ps) charge-separated states.Onthe otherhand, ultraviolet light excitation triggers anon-resolvabletransduction of singlet excited state energy from the NCNDs tothe porphyrins,followed by the same charge separationobserved upon visible light excitation.