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Octaanionic meso-tetra(3,5-dicarboxylatophenyl) porphyrin 1 was adsorbed to gold electrodes at pH 12 and stayed there after repeated washing with 10-2 M KOH. The fluorescence on sputtered gold surfaces amounted to 10% of the intensity observed on an organic subphase. Addition of 10-6 M aqueous solutions of the manganese(III) complexes of an isomer mixture of tetracationic β-tetraethyl-β‘-tetrakis(1-methyl-4-pyridinium)- and meso-4-(1-methyl-4-pyridinium)phenyl porphyrins 2 and 4 at pH 12 quenched the fluorescence quantitatively. Visible spectroscopy proved that the amount of porphyrin 1 on the gold surface had not changed. The octaanionic porphyrin 1 was then embedded in a membrane by self-assembly of a bolaamphiphile containing two secondary amide groups. Two hydrogen bond chains rigidify such a monolayer. The emission of porphyrin 1 remained after the self-assembly process. 1 was now localized on the bottom of a rigid membrane gap. Its fluorescence was again quantitatively quenched by the tetracationic manganese(III) porphyrinate 2, which fit in with the membrane gap. A larger manganese(III) porphyrin with a phenyl spacer between the porphyrin and methyl pyridinium rings could not enter, and no quenching was observed. The same experiment with a more fluid membrane made of octadecanethiol showed no such discriminating effect. The entrapment of 1,2-trans-cyclohexanediol within the “immobile” water volume of the membrane gap is also reported. Water-soluble compounds have thus been separated within a 2 nm3 water volume from bulk water. So far, the membrane pores with a porphyrin bottom resemble natural enzyme clefts.

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Smooth and nonswelling spherical silica particles with a diameter of 100 nm and an aminopropyl coating are soluble in water at pH 11, coagulate quickly at pH 3, and redissolve at pH 9. Electron microscopy as well as visible spectra of covalently attached porphyrins indicate the aggregation state of the particles. Long-chain alpha,omega-dicarboxylic acids with a terminal oligoethyleneglycol (=OEG)-amide group were attached in a second self-assembly step to the remaining amine groups around the porphyrins. Form-stable 2-nm wells were thus obtained and were characterized by fluorescence quenching experiments using the bottom porphyrin as a target. The one-dimensional diffusion of fitting quencher molecules along the 2-nm pathway took several minutes. Porphyrins with a diameter above 2 nm could not enter the form-stable gaps at all. Added tyrosine stuck irreversibly to the walls of the nanowells and prevented the entrance of quencher molecules, the OEG-headgroups fixated 2,6-diaminoanthraquinone. A ring of methylammonium groups was then fixed at the walls of the wells at a distance of 5 or 10 A with respect to the bottom porphyrin. 2,6-Disulfonatoanthraquinone was attached only loosely to this ring, but the exactly fitting manganese(III) meso-(tetraphenyl-4-sulfonato)porphyrinate (Mn(III) TPPS) was tightly bound. Transient fluorescence experiments showed a fast decay time of 0.2 ns for the bottom porphyrin, when the Mn(III) TPPS was fixated at a distance of 5 A. Two different dyes have thus been immobilized at a defined subnanometer distance in an aqueous medium.

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