Aggregation of a model porphyrin within poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG): effect of water, PEG molecular weight, ionic liquids, salts, and temperature.

Understanding molecular aggregation within environmentally-benign media is of utmost importance. Aggregation of a common porphyrin, 5,10,15,20-tetrakis(4-sulfonatophenyl)porphyrin (TSPP), dissolved in media composed of poly(ethylene glycols) (PEGs) up to an average molecular weight (MW) of 8000 as major components, is investigated. J-aggregates of TSPP are well-manifested via the bathochromically-shifted UV-vis absorbance band of TSPP. As media, 10 wt% water-added PEGs at pH 1 show excellent efficiency for TSPP J-aggregation. The J-aggregation efficiency increases as the PEG MW is increased and it is found to be the maximum for the medium constituted of PEG3000. Once formed, some of the J-aggregates decay back to the diprotonated form via pseudo-first order kinetics. Addition of salts NaCl and NaBF4 and ionic liquids [bmim][PF6], [bmim][Tf2N], [bmim][BF4], and [bmim][OTf] [bmim = 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium, PF6 = hexafluorophosphate, Tf2N = bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide, BF4 = tetrafluoroborate, and OTf = trifluoromethanesulfonate], respectively, to TSPP dissolved in 10 wt% water added PEGs at pH 1 results in increased J-aggregation efficiency. Ionic liquids are found to protect porphyrin J-aggregates from decaying to their diprotonated form. Increasing temperature from ambient to 90 °C results in decreased J-aggregation efficiency of TSPP in the presence of salts NaCl and NaBF4, respectively; concentration of J-aggregates does not change much with temperature when an ionic liquid as an additive is present in the medium. The polymer chain length and electrostatic interactions appear to play a major role in porphyrin J-aggregation efficiency and kinetics within water-added acidic mixtures of PEG.