Benzene internal conversion

Model II C B X Internal-Conversion Process in the Benzene Cation... 

Parameters of Model II, Which Represents a Three-State Eive-Mode Model of the Ultrafast C — B — X Internal-Conversion Process in the Benzene Cation [179, 180] ... 

Let us next turn to Model II, representing the C —> B —> X internal-conversion process in the benzene cation. Figure 2 demonstrates that this (compared to the electronic two-state model, Model I) more complicated process is difficult to describe with a MFT ansatz. Although the method is seen to catch the initial fast C —> B decay quite accurately and can also qualitatively reproduce the oscillations of the diabatic populations of the C- and B-state, it essentially fails to reproduce the subsequent internal conversion to the electronic X-state. Jn particular, the MFT method predicts a too-slow population transfer from the C- and B-state to the electronic ground state. 

Let us turn to Model 11 describing the C —> B —> X internal-conversion of the benzene cation. Figure 2 shows the diabatic population probabilities pertaining... 

Various theories have been proposed for horizontal transfer at the isoenergetic point. Gouterman considered a condensed system and tried to explain it in the same way as the radiative mechanism. In the radiative transfer, the two energy states are coupled by the photon or the radiation field. In the nonradiative transfer, the coupling is brought about by the phonon field of the crystalline matrix. But this theory is inconsistent with the observation that internal conversion occurs also in individual polyatomic molecules such as benzene. In such cases the medium does not actively participate except as a heat sink. This was taken into consideration in theories proposed by Robinson and Frosch, and Siebrand and has been further improved by Bixon and Jortner for isolated molecules, but the subject is still imperfectly understood. 

Some fluorescence lifetimes are observed in ps times, although these are unusual cases. In organic molecules the Sj—S0 fluorescence has natural lifetimes of the order of ns but the observed lifetimes can be much shorter if there is some competitive non-radiative deactivation (as seen above for the case of cyanine dyes). A few organic molecules show fluorescence from an upper singlet state (e.g. azulene) and here the emission lifetimes come within the ps time-scale because internal conversion to S and intersystem crossing compete with the radiative process. To take one example, the S2-S0 fluorescence lifetime of xanthione is 18 ps in benzene, 43 ps in iso-octane. 

A. Internal Conversion Electronic Relaxation in Substituted Benzenes... 

Figure 12. Molecular structures of some monosubstituted benzenes studied via TRPES in order to determine the quantitative accuracy of the extracted internal conversion rates. Three different electronic substituents were used, C=0, C=C, and C=C, leading to different state interactions. The effects of vibrational dynamics were investigated via the use of methyl group (floppier), as in a-MeSTY and ACP, or a ring structure (more rigid), as in IND, side-group additions. Both BZA and ACP have favorable Type (I) ionization correlations, whereas STY, IND, a-MeSTY, and ACT have unfavorable Type (II) ionization correlations.

Figure 14. Excess vibrational energy dependence of the internal conversion rates of the first TtTt state of benzene and its derivatives.

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