Photochemical reactions, timescale

In many chemical and even biological systems the use of an ab initio quantum dynamics method is either advantageous or mandatory. In particular, photochemical reactions may be most amenable to these methods because the dynamics of interest is often completed on a short (subpicosecond) timescale. The AIMS method has been developed to enable a realistic modeling of photochemical reactions, and in this review we have tried to provide a concise description of the method. We have highlighted (a) the obstacles that should be overcome whenever an ab initio quantum chemistry method is coupled to a quantum propagation method, (b) the wavefunction ansatz and fundamental... 

On-the-fly molecular dynamics have been employed in order to simulate the photochemistry of carbonyl-containing compounds. The on-the-fly mechanism implemented in the MNDO program is the velocity-Verlet algorithm. Here an additional aspect of the usage of a computational cheap semiempirical method is visible. In order to provide realistic relative yields of different photochemical reactions, a large enough sample of trajectories is needed. For these systems, a substantial amount of trajectories (around 100) has been calculated for a relatively long timescale (up to 100 ps). 

These azobenzene LCs display the liquid crystalline phase only when the azobenzene moiety is in the trans form, and no liquid crystalline phase at any temperature when the azobenzene moiety is in the cis form. In these azobenzene LC system, it was predicted that phase transition should be induced on essentially the same time-scale as the photochemical reaction of the photoresponsive moiety in each mesogen, if the photochemical reactions of a large number of mesogens were induced simultaneously by the use of a short laser pulse (Figure 7).1391 On the basis of such a new concept, the photoresponse of azobenzene LCs with the laser pulse was examined, and it was found that the N to I phase transition was induced in 200 xsJ39 40 This fast response, on the microsecond timescale, had been demonstrated for the first time in NLCs. From the viewpoint of application of LCs to photonic devices, such a fast response is quite encouraging. 

The second challenge for computational chemistry concerns the timescale accessible in the simulations. Biological reactions occur on a variety of timescales, ranging from the ultra-fast photochemical reactions occurring within several hundred femtoseconds up to the millisecond or even second timescale reactions found in catalysis... 

We emphasize that the critical ion pair stilbene+, CA in the two photoactivation methodologies (i.e., charge-transfer activation as well as chloranil activation) is the same, and the different multiplicities of the ion pairs control only the timescale of reaction sequences.14 Moreover, based on the detailed kinetic analysis of the time-resolved absorption spectra and the effect of solvent polarity (and added salt) on photochemical efficiencies for the oxetane formation, it is readily concluded that the initially formed ion pair undergoes a slow coupling (kc - 108 s-1). Thus competition to form solvent-separated ion pairs as well as back electron transfer limits the quantum yields of oxetane production. Such ion-pair dynamics are readily modulated by choosing a solvent of low polarity for the efficient production of oxetane. Also note that a similar electron-transfer mechanism was demonstrated for the cycloaddition of a variety of diarylacetylenes with a quinone via the [D, A] complex56 (Scheme 12). 

A second way to overcome the high reactivity of carbenes and so permit their direct observation is to conduct an experiment on a very short timescale. In the past five years this approach has been applied to a number of aromatic carbenes. These experiments rely on the rapid photochemical generation of the carbene with a short pulse of light (the pump beam), and the detection of the optical absorption (or emission) of the carbene with a probe beam. These pump-probe experiments can be performed on timescales ranging from picoseconds to milliseconds. They provide an important opportunity absent from the low temperature experiments, namely, the capability of studying chemical reactions of the carbene under normal conditions. Before proceeding to discuss the application of these techniques to aromatic carbenes, a few details illuminating the nature of the data obtained and the limitations of the experiment need to be introduced. 

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