Exciplex

Molecular Interaction. The examples of gas lasers described above involve the formation of chemical compounds in their excited states, produced by reaction between positive and negative ions. However, molecules can also interact in a formally nonbonding sense to give complexes of very short lifetimes, as when atoms or molecules collide with each other. If these sticky collisions take place with one of the molecules in an electronically excited state and the other in its ground state, then an excited-state complex (an exciplex) is formed, in which energy can be transferred from the excited-state molecule to the ground-state molecule. The process is illustrated in Figure 18.12. 

If a triplet-state molecule (A ) meets a singlet-state molecule (B ), a short-lived complex can be formed (an exciplex). In the latter, the molecules exchange energy, returning to its singlet state (A ) and B raised to its triplet state (B ). If the new triplet state is relatively long-lived, it can serve to produce the population inversion needed for lasing, as in the He/Ne laser. 

An Xc2 excimer laser has been made to operate in this way, but of much greater importance are the noble gas halide lasers. These halides also have repulsive ground states and bound excited states they are examples of exciplexes. An exciplex is a complex consisting, in a diatomic molecule, of two different atoms, which is stable in an excited electronic state but dissociates readily in the ground state. In spite of this clear distinction between an excimer and an exciplex it is now common for all such lasers to be called excimer lasers. 

Upon exposure to uv light, ground-state benzophenone is excited to the ttiplet state (a diradical) which abstracts an alpha H atom from the alcohol, resulting in the formation of two separate initiating radicals. With amine H atom donors, an electron transfer may precede the H-transfer, as in ttiplet exciplex formation between benzophenone and amine (eq. 43) ... 

Photopolymerization reactions are widely used for printing and photoresist appHcations (55). Spectral sensitization of cationic polymerization has utilized electron transfer from heteroaromatics, ketones, or dyes to initiators like iodonium or sulfonium salts (60). However, sensitized free-radical polymerization has been the main technology of choice (55). Spectral sensitizers over the wavelength region 300—700 nm are effective. AcryUc monomer polymerization, for example, is sensitized by xanthene, thiazine, acridine, cyanine, and merocyanine dyes. The required free-radical formation via these dyes may be achieved by hydrogen atom-transfer, electron-transfer, or exciplex formation with other initiator components of the photopolymer system. 

These reactions are believed to proceed through a complex of the alkene with a singlet excited state of the aromatic compound (an exciplex). The alkene and aromatic ring are presumed to be oriented in such a manner that the alkene n system reacts with p orbitals on 1,3-carbons of the aromatic. The structure of the excited-state species has been probed in more detail using CAS-SCF ab initio calculations. ... 

It is evident from the exceptions noted that the mechanism proposed above does not fully capture the pathways open to the Patemo-Biichi reaction. A great deal of effort has been devoted to deconvoluting all of the possible variants of the reaction. Reactions via singlet state carbonyls, charge-transfer paths, pre-singlet exciplexes, and full electron transfer paths have all been proposed. Unfortunately, their influence on product... 

The irradiation is usually carried out with light of the near UV region, in order to activate only ihc n n transition of the carbonyl function," thus generating excited carbonyl species. Depending on the substrate, it can be a singlet or triplet excited state. With aromatic carbonyl compounds, the reactive species are usually in a Ti-state, while with aliphatic carbonyl compounds the reactive species are in a Si-state. An excited carbonyl species reacts with a ground state alkene molecule to form an exciplex, from which in turn diradical species can be formed—e.g. 4 and 5 in the following example ... 

In 1982 Wei et al. [78,79] studied the quenching of N,N-dimethyltoiuidine (DMT) fluorescence by adding the electron-accepting monomer MA or MMA and successfully observed broad and structureless exciplex fluorescences at longer wavelengths in nonpolar solvents for the first time. 

This result reveals that exciplex formation plays a principal role in the initiation of polymerization. Since the absorption band is broadened toward longer wavelengths as the result of formation of CTC between AN and aniline, a certain concentration of aniline can be chosen so that 365-nm light is absorbed only by the CTC but not by the aniline molecule. Therefore, in this case the photopolymerization may be ascribed to the CTC excitation selected. For example, a 5 x 10 mol/L aniline solution in AN could absorb light of 365 nm, while solutions in DMF or cyclohexane with the same concentration will show no absorption. Obviously, in this case the polymerization of AN is caused by CTC excitation. The rates of polymerization for different amines were found to be in the following order (Table 12) ... 

The process for initiating radical formation in aromatic amine-vinyl monomer systems have been studied by Feng et al. [80-86] who proposed the formation of an aminium radical as the active state of an exciplex as intimate ion-pair and then a cyclic transition state which then would undergo a proton transfer process of deprotonation leading to the formation of active radical species for initiation as follows ... 

Li et al. [87,88] found that aniline will process the photopolymerization of AN either in N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) solution or in bulk with a fair rate of polymerization only next to DMT. From UV spectra it is proved that aniline will form a CTC with AN. Using 313-nm radiation that CTC is excited to an exciplex and polymerization proceeds. N-methylaniline will polymerize AN similarly. The following mechanism was proposed ... 

The end group of the polymers, photoinitiated with aromatic amine with or without the presence of carbonyl compound BP, has been detected with absorption spectrophotometry and fluororescence spectrophotometry [90]. The spectra showed the presence of tertiary amino end group in the polymers initiated with secondary amine such as NMA and the presence of secondary amino end group in the polymers initiated with primary amine such as aniline. These results show that the amino radicals, formed through the deprotonation of the aminium radical in the active state of the exciplex from the primary or secondary aromatic amine molecule, are responsible for the initiation of the polymerization. 

If the monomer is denoted by (M) and photoexcited chelate by (C), the proposed mechanism with ethyl acetate (15,16) involves formation of an exciplex (CM ), which may revert to (C + M) or decompose to facacCM radicals and Mn(facac)2. 

This alone is inadequate, since it predicates a linear relation between the rate of initiation and the monomer concentration, and, therefore, it is believed that monomer and ethyl acetate (E) are, to some extent, interchangeable in the reaction and that E may also form as exciplex (CE). ... 

The corresponding reaction Scheme, Scheme (16) proposed for benzene solution is similar, the only additional reaction being the deactivation of the exciplex (CM ) by the banzene molecule (B). 

Polymers in Schemes 12 and 13 were the first examples of the preparation of pyridinium and iminopyridinium ylide polymers. One of the more recent contributions of Kondo and his colleagues [16] deals with the sensitization effect of l-ethoxycarbonyliminopyridinium ylide (IPYY) (Scheme 14) on the photopolymerization of vinyl monomers. Only acrylic monomers such as MMA and methyl acrylate (MA) were photoinitiated by IPYY, while vinylacetate (VA), acrylonitrile (AN), and styrene were unaffected by the initiator used. A free radical mechanism was confirmed by a kinetic study. The complex of IPYY and MMA was defined as an exciplex that served as a precursor of the initiating radical. This ylide is unique in being stabilized by the participation of a... 

This emission occurs at longer wavelengths than the normal fluorescence. The exciplex emission, on the other hand, occurs from an excited associated complex formed between an excited species and a different ground-state species. 

The reaction between the photoexcited carbonyl compound and an amine occurs with substantially greater facility than that with most other hydrogen donors. The rate constants for triplet quenching by amines show little dependence on the amine a-C-H bond strength. However, the ability of the amine to release an electron is important.- - This is in keeping with a mechanism of radical generation which involves initial electron (or charge) transfer from the amine to the photoexcited carbonyl compound. Loss of a proton from the resultant complex (exciplex) results in an a-aminoalkyl radical which initiates polymerization. The... 

In a photochemical cycloaddition, one component is electronically excited as a consequence of the promotion of one electron from the HOMO to the LUMO. The HOMO -LUMO of the component in the excited state interact with the HOMO-LUMO orbitals of the other component in the ground state. These interactions are bonding in [2+2] cycloadditions, giving an intermediate called exciplex, but are antibonding at one end in the [,i4j + 2j] Diels-Alder reaction (Scheme 1.17) therefore this type of cycloaddition cannot be concerted and any stereospecificity can be lost. According to the Woodward-Hoffmann rules [65], a concerted Diels-Alder reaction is thermally allowed but photochemically forbidden. 

The primary interaction of singlet oxygen, produced by energy transfer from the excited sensitizer, with the diene can give rise to an exciplet that then collapses to peroxide, to a 1,4-biradical or to a 1,4-zwitterion alternatively, the adduct is the result of a concerted action without the involvement of an intermediate. Detailed kinetic Diels-Alder investigations of singlet oxygen and furans indicate that the reactions proceed concertedly but are asynchronous with the involvement of an exciplex as the primary reaction intermediate [63]. 

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