Picosecond absorption pairs

Picosecond absorption spectroscopy was employed to study the dynamics of contact ion pairs produced upon the photolysis of substituted diphenylmethyl acetates in the solvents acetonitrile, dimethyl sulfoxide, and 2,2,2-trifluoroethanol.66 A review appeared of the equation developed by Mayr and co-workers log k = s(N + E), where k is the rate constant at 20 °C, s and N are nucleophile-dependent parameters, and is an electrophilicity parameter 67 This equation, originally developed for benzhydrylium ions and n-nucleophiles, has now been employed for a large number of different types of electrophiles and nucleophiles. The E, N, and s parameters now available can be used to predict the rates of a large number of polar organic reactions. Rate constants for the reactions of benzhydrylium ions with halide ions were obtained... 

Picosecond absorption spectroscopy studies of the contact ion pairs formed in the photo-initiated, S N 1 reaction of three substituted benzhydryl acetates (18) provided the rate constants for the k and k2 steps of the reaction (Scheme 10), in acetonitrile and DMSO.83 The activation parameters for the k and k2 steps were obtained from the temperature dependence of these steps and the transition state energies were calculated from the rate constants. This allowed the energy surfaces for three substituted substrates to be calculated in each solvent. The effect of solvent reorganization on the reactions of the unsubstituted and methyl-substituted benzhydryl contact ion pairs (CIP) was significant, causing a breakdown of transition state theory for these reactions. The results indicated that it will be very difficult to develop a simple theory of nucleophilicity in, S N1 reactions and that Marcus theory cannot be applied to SnI processes. 

In this system, the dynamics of pair decay (via intersystem crossing) and of pair separation by solvent molecules were determined by picosecond absorption spectroscopy [167, 168],... 

Concerning the analysis of different types of ion pairs and their discrimination using picosecond absorption spectroscopy, the work by Peters must be emphasized. He studied in great detail the photoreduction of benzophenone by aromatic amines... 

No evidence was found from the picosecond absorption data for an excited state intermediate of the EDA complex. This formulation represente a confirmation of Mulliken s theory, in which CT band excitation of the quite nonpolar ground state produces an ion pair. Accordingly, indene and TCNE form ground state complexes which undergo fast electron transfer on irradition. However, back electron transfer occurs after relatively long time (ca. 500 ps) via a transient... 

A diporphyrin cyclophane (Fig. 23) has been synthesized in which the macrocycle planes are cofacial and separated by about 0.4 nm. It is possible to preferentially insert one or two metal atoms into these dimers. Thus it is possible to study three separate cyclophanes, containing two, one, or no magnesium atoms. The fluorescence emission of the dimers is much lower than that of the monomers with the dimetal compound having an emission three times larger than the other two. For the dimetal and the nonmetallated dimer the estimated energy of the ion pair is above the energy of the relaxed excited singlet state. " The time-resolved picosecond absorption spectrum of these compounds decay slowly from what appears... 

Quantum yields for the formation of 141 from 138 in TFE-MeCN were estimated by transient absorption actinometry (Table l).62 The data refer to solvated carbocations (141) since ion pairs (140) are too short-lived for detection on the ns time scale. The modest to poor yields of 141 could be due to predominant ion-pair recombination (140 -> 142), or to parallel protonation (139 — 140) and insertion (139 — 142). Picosecond LFP studies on photoheterolyses of A CH-X in MeCN revealed that the ratio of collapse to escape (k /ki) for [Ar2CH+ X-] is slightly affected by p-substituents (H, Me, OMe) and by X (Cl, Br).66 In contrast, 4>M1 was found to increase by a factor of 17 as p-H (138d) was replaced with p-OMe (138a).62 Hence the ion-pair hypothesis seems difficult to reconcile with the effect of p-substituents on unless the strong nucleophile RO in 140 behaves differently from the weakly nucleophilic halide ions. 

Some direct information on ion pairing comes from picosecond LFP of 138a in ROH-MeCN mixtures.67 In the presence of EtOH, the transient absorption of 139a, A-max 400 nm, was apparent at 50 ps. At 150 ps, the 400 nm... 

The rate of this ion-pair exchange could be measured in various solvents using picosecond laser absorption spectroscopy. The rate decreases as the ability of the solvent to solvate the metal cation increases. It even falls to zero rate in the presence of appropriate crown... 

Although the transient spectrum of a radical-ion pair was recorded in a picosecond-nanosecond time domain in the flash photolysis of Co(III) alkylcobalamins,123 there has been no direct spectroscopic observation of the LMCT excited states. The observed photochemical behavior may be simply described by the following sequence of events (1) absorption of radiation produces a Franck-Condon excited state, which (2) rapidly loses its excess vibrational energy (k > 10ns ) to form the thermalized excited state, followed by (3) product formation and internal conversion to the ground state. The existence of LMCT excited states with a finite lifetime in the... 

Serpone et al. have examined colloidal titanium dioxide sols (prepared by hydrolysis of TiCl4) with mean particle diameters of 2.1, 13.3, and 26.7 nm by picosecond transient absorption and emission spectroscopy [5]. Absorption decay for the 2.1 nm sols was found to be a simple first-order process, and electron/hole recombination was 100% complete by 10 ns. For the 13.3 and 26.7 nm sols absorption decay follows distinct second-order biphasic kinetics the decay times of the fast components decrease with increase in particle size. 10 ns after the excitation pulse, about 90% or more of the photogenerated electron/hole pairs have recombined such that the quantum yield of photooxidations must be 10% or less. The faster components are due to the recombination of shallow-trapped charge carriers, whereas the slower components (x > 20 ns) reflect recombination of deep-trapped electrons and holes. 

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