Inter-porphyrin coupling: how strong should it be for molecular electronics applications?

Porphyrins and phthalocyanines have now been assembled in a multitude of different architectures, each of which may be identified with a different scenario of the coupling acting between the porphyrins. The synthetic flexibility of these compounds makes possible the design of particular molecules for specific applications in molecular electronics, both in naturally occurring and synthetic devices. Here, we form an overview of these features and focus on the coupling strength, considering what values are appropriate for different molecular electronics applications. In particular, we focus on model compounds that have been prepared as mimics of naturally occurring photosynthetic functional units, oligoporphyrins molecular wires, and stacked systems in which small changes in geometry can affect significant changes in the inter-porphyrin coupling and hence produce dramatic changes in device properties.