We have investigated the overall excitation energy relaxation dynamics in linear porphyrin arrays as well asthe energy transport phenomena by attaching an energy acceptor to one end of a linear porphyrin array byusing steady state and time-resolved spectroscopic measurements. We have revealed that the solvation dynamicsas well as the conformational dynamics contributes significantly to the energy relaxation processes of linearporphyrin arrays. Consequently, long porphyrin arrays no longer serve as good energy transmission elementsin donor−acceptor linked systems due to conformational heterogeneities which provide the nonradiativedeactivation channels as energy quenchers.
