Exploring the extent of magnetic field effect on intermolecular photoinduced electron transfer in different organized assemblies

Magnetic field effect (MFE) on the photoinduced electron transfer (PET) between phenazine (PZ) and the amines, N,N-dimethylaniline, NN-diethylaniline, 4,4'-bis(dimethylamino)diphenyl methane (DMDPM), and triethylamine, has been studied in micelles, reverse micelles, and small unilamellar vesicles (SUVs) with a view to understand the effect of spatial location of the donor and acceptor moieties on the magnetic field behavior. The structure of the assembly is found to influence greatly the PET dynamics and hence the MFE of all the systems studied. The magnetic field behavior in micelles is consistent with the hyperfine mechanism, but high B-1/2 values have been obtained which have been ascribed to hopping and lifetime broadening. The variation of MFE with W-0, in reverse micelles, proves yet again that the MFE maximizes at an optimum separation distance between the acceptor and donor. This is the first example of such behavior for intermolecular PET in heterogeneous medium. We have also reported for the first time MFE on intermolecular PET in SUVs. In this case, the PZ-DMDPM system responds most appreciably to an external field compared to the other acceptor-donor systems because it is appropriately positioned in the bilayer. The differential behavior of the amines has been discussed in terms of their confinement in different zones of the organized assemblies depending on their bulk, hydrophobic, and electrostatic effects.