Fluorescence spin-forbidden

Once the excited molecule reaches the S state it can decay by emitting fluorescence or it can undergo a fiirtlier radiationless transition to a triplet state. A radiationless transition between states of different multiplicity is called intersystem crossing. This is a spin-forbidden process. It is not as fast as internal conversion and often has a rate comparable to the radiative rate, so some S molecules fluoresce and otliers produce triplet states. There may also be fiirther internal conversion from to the ground state, though it is not easy to detemiine the extent to which that occurs. Photochemical reactions or energy transfer may also occur from S. ... 

Figure 10. Electron excitations in radicals (a) Collective representation of one-electron transitions of the A, B, and C types if denotes MO (b) LCI energy-level scheme (Jablonski diagram) for doublet and quartet states indicating why with radicals fluorescence (- - -) but not phosphorescence is observed. Spin-forbidden transitions are represented by dashed lines.

A third possible channel of S state deexcitation is the S) —> Ti transition -nonradiative intersystem crossing isc. In principle, this process is spin forbidden, however, there are different intra- and intermolecular factors (spin-orbital coupling, heavy atom effect, and some others), which favor this process. With the rates kisc = 107-109 s"1, it can compete with other channels of S) state deactivation. At normal conditions in solutions, the nonradiative deexcitation of the triplet state T , kTm, is predominant over phosphorescence, which is the radiative deactivation of the T state. This transition is also spin-forbidden and its rate, kj, is low. Therefore, normally, phosphorescence is observed at low temperatures or in rigid (polymers, crystals) matrices, and the lifetimes of triplet state xT at such conditions may be quite long, up to a few seconds. Obviously, the phosphorescence spectrum is located at wavelengths longer than the fluorescence spectrum (see the bottom of Fig. 1). 

Phosphorescence arises as the result of a radiative transition between states of different multiplicity, Ti —> So. Since the process is spin-forbidden, phosphorescence has a much smaller rate constant, kp, than that for fluorescence, kf ... 

Phosphorescence is spin-forbidden and thus phosphorescence emission is less intense (Figure 4.10) and less rapid than fluorescence. 

Besides the spin-forbidden processes of Sections VII-XII, there are a number of other spin-forbidden processes of interest. Intersystem crossing may occur in certain predissociation phenomena and in P-type delayed fluorescence.198 Also of interest are the heavy atom effect and the direct interaction of radiation with spin. 

A distinction is made between fluorescence and phosphorescence according to the change in the spin quantum number between the initial and final states. When these quantum numbers are the same AS = 0 and the transition is spin-allowed (but there may be other factors to be taken into account as well, as we shall see) this emission is then defined as a fluorescence. If there is any change in the spin quantum number, AS = 0, the transition is spin forbidden and is defined as a phosphorescence. The important difference between these two forms of luminescence resides in their kinetics a fluorescence is shortlived, with emission lifetimes in the range 1 ns to 1 ts, while phosphorescence lifetimes go from 1 ms to many seconds or even minutes. 

On the other hand, most chemists and many physicists leading with polyatomic organic molecules currently employ the mechanistic definitions advanced by G. N. Lewis and shown in Figure 1. Thus, fluorescence is defined as a radiative transition between states of like multiplicity, e.g., 5 x - So + hv. Phosphorescence is a radiative transition between states of different multiplicity. In organic molecules the process is usually associated with spin-forbidden transitions such as Ti - S0 + hv". 

Similar to other d -d systems, the drnuclear iridium(I) complex [Ir(/x-pz)(COD)]2 (23) showed spin-allowed and spin-forbidden (da — pa) absorption bands at 498 and 585 nm, respectively. Under ambient conditions, the complex displayed fluorescence at 564 nm and phosphorescence at 687 nm, which were assigned to singlet and triplet excited states of (da — pa) character. The triplet excited state of the complex was a powerful reductant with an excited-state reduction potential E° (Ir2+ ) of-1.81 V vs. SSCE. Facile electron transfer reactions occurred between the excited complex and methyl viologen and other pyridinium acceptors. The absence of an inverted effect for the forward electron transfer reactions, and the presence of such inverted behavior for the back-electron-transfer reactions were observed and explained. ... 

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