Exploring the versatility of porphyrins: From solar energy conversion to catalysis and sensing

The SunLab group focuses on the rational design and synthesis of porphyrin-based advanced materials for solar energy conversion, nonlinear optics, catalysis and sensing. Porphyrins are highly conjugated aromatic macrocycles with remarkable thermal and chemical stability, whose tunable functionalization enables modulation of their electronic properties for various applications. Within this framework, our research explores fluorinated and push–pull zinc porphyrins for photoelectrochemical hydrobromic acid splitting and for second-harmonic generation. Experimental and theoretical studies revealed that β-functionalization enhances conjugation and charge injection into semiconductor materials. Further optimization introduced electron-donating amino groups to improve photocurrent yield and catalytic performance, successfully enabling the oxidation of benzyl alcohol to benzaldehyde via TEMPO mediation. Additional efforts are devoted to developing porphyrin–semiconductor nano-heterojunctions for chemoresistive sensing of volatile organic compounds at reduced operating temperatures, and to Fe(III)-porphyrin systems for the electrochemical reduction of CO₂. Ongoing work focuses on the synthesis and characterization of new fluorinated β-substituted chromophores for improved optical and electrochemical performance in catalysis and dye-sensitized photoelectrosynthetic cells.