Effects of axial ligands on the photophysical properties of silicon octaphenoxyphthalocyanine

The photochemistry and photophysics of six axially substituted silicon phthalocyanines are reported and show the importance of the axial groups in the photochemistry of these compounds. The fluorescence quantum yields are especially affected by the axial ligand. A very good correlation was found for the experimentally determined fluorescence lifetimes and the theoretically determined lifetimes using the Strickler-Berg equation for the unaggregated molecules.