The determination of the photosensitizing properties of mercapto substituted phthalocyanine derivatives in the presence of quantum dots capped with mercaptopropionic acid

This work reports on the synthesis of several novel water soluble metallophthalocyanines containing Zn2+, In3+, Ga3+ or Si4+ as central metal ions and tetra substituted with mercaptoacetic acid and mercaptopropionic acid. The complexes were characterized using infra red, nuclear magnetic resonance and mass spectroscopies as well as elemental analysis. All the complexes are water soluble but the majority are highly aggregated in water and organic solvents. The complex containing Zn as a central metal and mercaptopropionic acid as a substituent was not aggregated allowing for the determination of photophysical parameters. This complex had triplet state quantum yield of 0.61 in DMF and 0.88 in DMSO while the fluorescence quantum yield was 0.13 in DMSO. The determination of photophysical properties of the complex containing Zn as a central metal and mercaptopropionic acid were carried out in the presence of mercaptopropionic acid capped CdTe quantum dots. There is an increase in triplet state quantum yield from 0.88 (for the phthalocyanine alone) to 0.94 (in the presence of CdTe quantum dots) in DMSO.