Uniform approach to bacteriochlorophyll-based monolayers on conducting, semiconducting, and insulating substrates

A general approach is demonstrated for the formation of monolayers comprised of free-base and metalated Bacteriochlorophyll-based derivatives providing a new vehicle for studying photosynthetic motifs and chromophore thin-film interactions. Accessibility to covalent and self-assembled systems on conducting, semiconducting, and insulating substrates is realized utilizing identical molecular building blocks. The monolayers retain the optical features typical for the new systems in solution. Molecular organization of chromophore interaction motifs can be sequentially designed using preassembled building blocks in solution and expressed in the thin film optical properties. For instance, intramolecular π-π stacking is conserved for the dimeric Ni-based chromophores as deduced from the spectroscopic measurements of the monolayers and in solution.