The emission of chlorophyll was observed first in 1934 by Robinowitch and the earliest systemtic spectroscopic studies of porphyrin were made by Stern and coworkers in the same year. The luminescent property of por phyrins was paid more and more attention in recent several decades.There are extensive interactions between the π electrons of the porphyrin ring and the electron of the central metal atom and its ligands. It is found that the interactions are sensitive to the electronic structure of the central metal ion. This paper reports the photovoltaic spectra of meso-te-traphenylporphyrin(TPP)

mesotetra (-4-N-pyridyl-) porphyrin(TPyP) and of their zinc (Ⅱ) copper (Ⅱ) complexes in solid state

and compares with the optical absorption and fluorescence spectra of these compounds in chloroform. Furthermore the same work has been done for chlorophyll-a (Chla)

phoeophytin-a (Phn-a) zinc(Ⅱ)-phceophytin a (Zn-Phn-a)

copper(Ⅱ)-phoeophytin-a(Cu-Phn-a) in acetone. The optical spectra of TPP and TPyP are known to be attributed entirly to π-π

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transitions of the ring with the central metal contributing electronic or spin-orbit perturbation

the spin-orbit perturbation cause the large variations in fluorescence spectra. It seems to be that such perturbation makes the photovoltaic spectra different.We also found that the substituent in porphyrin ring has little effect on porphyrin spectra.