Response, photochemical reactions

Fig-1 Photochemical reactions responsible for photochromic behaviour in a) azobenzene derivatives, b) spiropyran compounds, c) fulgides, and d) triphenylmethane derivatives. 

Fig. 14 Photochemical reaction responsible for photochromic behavior of spiropyrane-containing ELP. Reproduced with permission from American Chemical Society...

About 51 percent of solar energy incident at the top of the atmosphere reaches Earth s surface. Energetic solar ultraviolet radiation affects the chemistry of the atmosphere, especially the stratosphere where, through a series of photochemical reactions, it is responsible for the creation of ozone (O,). Ozone in the stratosphere absorbs most of the short-wave solar ultraviolet (UV) radiation, and some long-wave infrared radiation. Water vapor and carbon dioxide in the troposphere also absorb infrared radiation. 

The second group of intermolecular reactions (2) includes [1, 2, 9, 10, 13, 14] electron transfer, exciplex and excimer formations, and proton transfer processes (Table 1). Photoinduced electron transfer (PET) is often responsible for fluorescence quenching. PET is involved in many photochemical reactions and plays... 

The examples we have demonstrated so far are schematically shown in Figure 1. Although the photochemical events and the subsequent physical changes are different from system to system, a general trend is the there is a non-linear response to the degree of photochemical reaction, that is, the image amplification has been demonstrated. 

Photoinduced electron transfer (PET) is often responsible for fluorescence quenching. This process is involved in many organic photochemical reactions. It plays a major role in photosynthesis and in artificial systems for the conversion of solar energy based on photoinduced charge separation. Fluorescence quenching experiments provide a useful insight into the electron transfer processes occurring in these systems. 

By chance rather than by design, the third chapter in this volume also emanates from Israel. Bernard S. Green, Rina Arad-Yellin, and Mendel D. Cohen have surveyed organic reactions in the solid state from the standpoint of the stereochemist. In the first part of the chapter, the authors discuss the stereochemical consequences of the crystallization of conformationally mobile systems. Conformational, crystal-field, and hydrogen-bonding effects, among others, are responsible for the selective crystallization of stereoisomers that may not be dominant in solution. The second part of the chapter is concerned with the stereochemical consequences of chemical, and especially photochemical, reactions in the solid state. 

Eye irritation has been a common complaint of people exposed to phohx hemical air poUution. Attempts to investigate this experimentally have encountered problems, because of the subjective nature of the human response and the multiphasic photochemical reactions involved. Human studies conducted until 1970 on eye irritation were cataloged and discussed in Air Quality Criteria for Hydrocarbons. 

In a purely photochemical reaction the absorption of radiant energy is plainly responsible for the activation. This suggested the possibility that thermal reactions are also due to activation by the thermal radiation which is present at every temperature. The argument was very forcibly presented by Perrin who showed that if the specific rate of a imimolecular gas reaction remains constant, with indefinite diminution in pressure, activation must be by radiation since the number of opportunities for activation by collision also diminishes without limit. In fact, the decomposition of nitrogen pentoxide, the first gas reaction shown to be unquestionably unimolecular, was found to have a specific reaction rate constant over a wide range of pressure, and apparently increasing at very low pressures. ... 

One of the most important and difficult questions to answer for any photochemical reaction is which excited state is involved. Since these are the reagents, it is obviously important, if generalizations are to be made, to know which state is responsible for a given reaction. The question is difficult to answer because several different types of excited states, both singlet and triplet, are attainable even with the simplest of carbonyl compounds, and their reactivity may, in some cases, be similar. All of the discussion thus far has implied that the photocycloaddition reaction is characteristic of the n,n state. What is the evidence that this state can be involved and what is the character of this state which makes it reactive ... 

Most of the reported photochemical reactions of lanthanide complexes involve some type of redox behavior.147 Photolysis (254—405 nm) of Eu2+ in acidic aqueous solution, for example, results in photooxidation of the metal and generation of H2 (equation 50).148 While the excited states responsible for this reaction nominally arise from 4/ -+ 5d transitions localized on the metal, strong mixing of the 5rf-orbital with ligand orbitals endows these states with appreciable CTTL character. Photoreduction of aquated Eu3+ can also be driven with UV ( 254 nm) light149 and forms the... 

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