Interpretation of the UV−vis Spectra of the meso(Ferrocenyl)-Containing Porphyrins using a TDDFT Approach: Is Gouterman’s Classic Four-Orbital Model Still in Play?

The vertical excitation energies of H(2)TPP [TPP = 5,10,15,20-tetraphenylporphyrin(2-)], H(2)FcPh(3)P [FcPh(3)P = 5-ferrocenyl-10,15,20-triphenylporphyrin(2-)], cis-H(2)Fc(2)Ph(2)P [cis-Fc(2)Ph(2)P = 5,10-bisferrocenyl-15,20-diphenylporphyrin (2-)], trans-H(2)Fc(2)Ph(2)P [trans-Fc(2)Ph(2)P = 5,15-bisferrocenyl-10,20-diphenylporphyrin(2-)], H(2)Fc(3)PhP [H(2)Fc(3)PhP = 5,10,15-trisferrocenyl-20-phenylporphyrin(2-)], and H(2)TFcP [TFcP = 5,10,15,20-tetraferrocenylporphyrin(2-)] were investigated using a time-dependent density functional theory (DFT) approach and compared to their experimental UV-vis spectra in the 10,000-30,000 cm(-1) region. It was shown that the lowest energy transitions in meso(ferrocenyl)-containing porphyrins have predominantly ferrocene-to-porphyrin charge transfer character, while the porphyrin-centered π-π* transitions predicted by the Gouterman's classic four-orbital model still have the largest intensities in the UV-vis region. The number of predominantly ferrocene-to-porphyrin charge transfer transitions increases with the number of ferrocene substituents and becomes dominant in H(2)TFcP.