Porphyrin Antennas on Carbon Nanodots: Excited State Energy and Electron Transduction

We report the synthesis and electron donor–acceptor features of a novel nanohybrid, in which the light‐harvesting and electron‐donating properties of a meso ‐tetraarylporphyrin (TArP) are combined with the electron‐accepting features of nitrogen‐doped carbon nanodots (NCNDs). In particular, in an ultrafast process (>10 12 s −1 ), visible‐light excitation transforms the strongly quenched porphyrin singlet excited states into short‐lived (225 ps) charge‐separated states. On the other hand, ultraviolet light excitation triggers a non‐resolvable transduction of singlet excited state energy from the NCNDs to the porphyrins, followed by the same charge separation observed upon visible light excitation.