The synthesis and photophysical properties of a ruthenium dyad (4) and triad, (5) are reported. Both biomimetic systems are physical models for the photosynthetic reaction center. They consist of a ruthenium(II)-polypyridyl sensitizer featuring chemically attached 3,3'-dimethyl-4,4'-viologen and 4,4'-viologen electron acceptors. The binding of the chemically attached electron acceptors by the three structurally different crown ethers, DB30C10, BBO5O5, and AAO(5)O(5), offers a remarkable tool for the enhancement of the lifetimes of the charge separated states (tau(CS)), up to a factor of 2 x 10(4). The drastic increase in the lifetimes observed can be explained by a decrease in the reorganization energy lambda due to the presence of the crown ether units bound to the viologen acceptor.