Reactions excited-state intramolecular hydrogen/proton

Ultrafast studies on tautomerism concentrate on compounds that can exhibit hydrogen transfer in the electronically excited state. Hydrogen transfer is a very typical reaction for the interconversion between different tautomeric forms. It converts enol to keto, amino to imino, imino to enamino, and lactim to lactam forms, to name some examples. For time-resolved experiments, excited-state intramolecular proton transfer (ESIPT) is particularly well suited since a short laser pulse in the visible or ultraviolet (UV) spectral region can trigger this process by promoting the molecule into the electronically excited state and initiating the transfer in this way [3]. The vast majority of experiments on tautomerism with ultrafast time resolution are therefore done on compounds exhibiting ESIPT. 

The proton transfer may occur rapidly after the excitation and form a tautomer, when either acidic or basic moieties of the same molecule become stronger acids or bases in the excited state. The majority of reactions of this type involve the proton transfer from an oxygen donor to an oxygen or nitrogen acceptor, although a few other cases are known, where a nitrogen atom can function as a donor and a carbon atom as the acceptor. Usually an intramolecular hydrogen bond between the two moieties of a molecule facilitates the proton transfer. 

The ESIPT of 2-(2 -hydroxyphenyl)-4-methyloxazole (HPMO) (27) has been explored by Douhal and co-workers [166] for its probe characteristics in a variety of organized media which include cyclodextrin, calixarene, micelle, and HSA. The incorporation of HPMO into hydrophobic cavities in an aqueous medium involves the rupture of its intermolecular hydrogen bond to water and formation of an intramolecular hydrogen bond in the sequestered molecule. Upon excitation (280-330 nm) of this entity, a fast intramolecular proton-transfer reaction of the excited state produces a phototautomer (28), the fluorescence of which (Xm = 450 170 nm) shows a largely Stokes-shifted band. Because of the existence of a twisting motion around the C2—C bond of this phototautomer, the absorption and emission properties of the probe depend on the size of the host cav-... 

Light-induced intramolecular proton transfer has long been suspected to play an important role in the mechanism for photochromism in both crystals and solutions. One class of compounds that has been extensively studied is the A -salicylidene anilines. The main evidence for invoking an excited-state proton-transfer step in the photochromic mechanism comes from the observation that the colored species exists as the keto amine tautomer (in the ground state) while the bleached form exists as an enol imine (in the ground state). Replacement of the labile hydrogen with a methyl group prevents the photochemical reaction that leads to the colored species. Picosecond transient spectroscopy was used to study iV-salycylidene-o-toluidine (NST) and the related compound 2-(o-hydroxyphenyl)benzothiazole (HBT). ... 

Jenckhe at al., explored the effects of molecular size, extent of conjugation, concentration quenching, and competition with excimer formation on intramolecular proton transfer as well as on the electro-luminescent device potential of polymeric materials. Materials like 2-(2-hydroxyphenyl)-benzoxazole and 2-(2-hydroxyphenyl)benzothiazole contain intramolecular hydrogen bonds and are known to undergo excited state charge transfer reactions and intramolecular proton transfer upon excitation. They reported, however, that the results of their studies with model compounds and several polymers, whose structure ... 

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