Chemiluminescence activation energies

Because the chemiluminescence intensity can be used to monitor the concentration of peroxyl radicals, factors that influence the rate of autooxidation can easily be measured. Included are the rate and activation energy of initiation, rates of chain transfer in cooxidations, the activities of catalysts such as cobalt salts, and the activities of inhibitors (128). 

The rates and chemiluminescent intensities of atom-transfer reactions are proportional to the concentrations of the reactants, but the intensity is inversely proportional to the concentration of inert gas present. The latter quenches the excited state through coUision with an efficiency dependent on the stmcture of the inert gas. Chemiluminescence Qc increases with temperature, indicating that excitation has a higher activation energy than the ground state... 

Data for temperature coefficients (activation energies) given in Table 2 show one common phenomenon when plotting chemiluminescence intensity vs. temperature in Arrhenius coordinates, namely, that in the higher temperature range the activation energy is usually higher than at lower temperatures, which is... 

Since its discovery by Chandross and to this day, peroxy-oxalate chemiluminescence has been controversial because of its enormous complexity in view of the many alternative steps involved in this process. The principal mechanistic feature of the peroxy-oxalate chemiluminescence pertains to the base-catalyzed (commonly imidazole) reaction of an activated aryl oxalate with hydrogen peroxide in the presence of a chemiluminescent activator, usually a highly fluorescent aromatic hydrocarbon with a low oxidation potential . A variety of putative high-energy peroxide intermediates have been proposed for the generation of the excited states . In the context of the present chapter, it is of import to mention that recent work provides experimental evidence for the intervention of the 1,2-dioxetanedione 18 (Scheme 11) as the high-energy species responsible for the chemiexcitation. Furthermore, clear-cut experimental data favor the CIEEL mechanism as a rationalization of the peroxy-oxalate chemiluminescence . 

The main features of the chemiluminescence mechanism are exemplarily illustrated in Scheme 11 for the reaction of bis(2,4,6-trichlorophenyl)oxalate (TCPO) with hydrogen peroxide in the presence of imidazole (IMI-H) as base catalyst and the chemiluminescent activators (ACT) anthracene, 9,10-diphenylanthracene, 2,5-diphenyloxazole, perylene and rubrene. In this mechanism, the replacement of the phenolic substituents in TCPO by IMI-H constitutes the slow step, whereas the nucleophilic attack of hydrogen peroxide on the intermediary l,l -oxalyl diimidazole (ODI) is fast. This rate difference is manifested by a two-exponential behavior of the chemiluminescence kinetics. The observed dependence of the chemiexcitation yield on the electrochemical characteristics of the activator has been rationalized in terms of the intermolecular CIEEL mechanism (Scheme 12), in which the free-energy balance for the electron back-transfer (BET) determines whether the singlet-excited activator, the species responsible for the light emission, is formed ... 

The reactions are fast. Activation energies greater than 5kcal.mole-1 are unusual (and not well established). Observed chemiluminescence is often that of the alkali metal atom (D-line radiation), although for some cases (Na reactions with inorganic polyhalides), diffuse radiation from a molecular product has been observed. 

Despite the clear implication of the involvement of intramolecular electron transfer in the chemiluminescence of certain dioxetanes, there have been no clear examples of intermolecular electron exchange luminescence processes with dioxetanes. In a recent note, however, Wilson (1979) reports the observation of catalysis of the chemiluminescence of tetramethoxy-1,2-dioxetane by rubrene and, most surprisingly, by 9,10-dicyanoanthracene. While catalysis by the added fluorescers was not kinetically discernible, a lowering of the activation energy for chemiluminescence was observed. These results were interpreted not in terms of an actual electron transfer with the formation of radical ions, but rather in terms of charge transfer interactions between fluorescer and dioxetane in the collision complex. In any event, these results certainly emphasize the need for caution in considering the fluorescer as a passive energy acceptor in dioxetane chemiluminescence. 

Table IV. Activation energies for the production of chemiluminescence from resin aged at 85°C.

Besides the isothermal kinetic methods mentioned above, by which activation parameters are determined by measuring the rate of dioxetane disappearance at several constant temperatures, a number of nonisothermal techniques have been developed. These include the temperature jump method, in which the kinetic run is initiated at a particular constant initial temperature (r,-), the temperature is suddenly raised or dropped by about 15°C, and is then held constant at the final temperature (7y), under conditions at which dioxetane consumption is negligible. Of course, for such nonisothermal kinetics only the chemiluminescence techniques are sufficiently sensitive to determine the rates. Since the intensities /, at 7 ,- and If at Tf correspond to the instantaneous rates at constant dioxetane concentration, the rate constants A ,- and kf are known directly. From the temperature dependence (Eq. 32), the activation energies are readily calculated. This convenient method has been modified to allow a step-function analysis at various temperatures and a continuous temperature variation.Finally, differential thermal analysis has been employed to assess the activation parameters in contrast to the above nonisothermal kinetic methods, in the latter the dioxetane is completely consumed and, thus, instead of initial rates, one measures total rates. 

Recently,the electron-transfer theory was extended in order to incorporate the slow and reversible chemically induced electron-exchange reactions, as observed for the fluorescer-catalyzed chemiluminescent decomposition of a-peroxylactones. It was argued that electron transfer is complete in the transition state for such a slow and irreversible endergonic electron-transfer reaction, but that the typically small slopes (— a/RT where a is about 0.3) of the In (intensity) vs. oxidation potential plot was due to the fact that only a fraction (a) of the total free-energy change manifests itself in the activation energy. 

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