Synthetic molecular systems based on porphyrins as models for the study of energy transfer in photosynthesis

The published data on the synthesis and photochemical properties of porphyrin-based molecular ensembles which represent models of natural photosynthetic light-harvesting complexes are generalised and systematised. The dependence of the transfer of excitation energy on the distance between donor and acceptor components, their mutual arrangement, electronic and environmental factors are discussed. Two mechanisms of energy transfer reactions, viz., 'through space' and 'through bond', are considered. The bibliography includes 96 references.