Singlet state spectroscopy

Typical singlet lifetimes are measured in nanoseconds while triplet lifetimes of organic molecules in rigid solutions are usually measured in milliseconds or even seconds. In liquid media where drfifiision is rapid the triplet states are usually quenched, often by tire nearly iibiqitoiis molecular oxygen. Because of that, phosphorescence is seldom observed in liquid solutions. In the spectroscopy of molecules the tenn fluorescence is now usually used to refer to emission from an excited singlet state and phosphorescence to emission from a triplet state, regardless of the actual lifetimes. 

Conjugated polymers are centrosymmetric systems where excited states have definite parity of even (A,) or odd (B ) and electric dipole transitions are allowed only between states of opposite parity. The ground state of conjugated polymers is an even parity singlet state, written as the 1A... PM spectroscopy is a linear technique probing dipole allowed one-photon transitions. Non linear spectroscopies complement these measurements as they can couple to dipole-forbidden trail-... 

Pyrolysis of the parent thiirane oxide 16a monitored by microwave spectroscopy led to the conclusion that the sulfur monoxide is generated in its triplet ground state, although the singlet state ( A) cannot be excluded completely (equation 8). A later study presented evidence, based on the stereoselective addition to dienes of sulfur monoxide generated from thiirane oxide as well as thermochemical data, that the ground state S is formed exclusively ° . ... 

The dynamics of photoinduced charge separation, kcs, and charge recombination, kcr (Fig. 2a), have been studied in several families of hairpins containing an Sa linker and a single G C base pair by means of femtosecond time-resolved transient absorption spectroscopy [27, 28]. Both the singlet state and anion radical of Sa have strong transient absorption centered at 575 nm. The difference in the independently determined band shapes for Sa ... 

In good electron acceptor solvents, such as carbon tetrachloride and chloroform, the photodegradation of carotenoids is significantly increased as compared to other solvents (Christophersen et al. 1991, Mortensen and Skibsted 1999), because of a direct photoinduced electron-transfer reaction from the excited singlet state of the carotenoids to the solvent, as determined by transient absorption spectroscopy (Jeevarajan et al. 1996, Mortensen and Skibsted 1996,1997a,b, El-Agamey et al. 2005), Equation 12.2 ... 

Whilst chlorophyll absorbs light over the entire visible spectrum, relaxation to the lowest lying excited singlet state is extremely rapid. Thus singlet energy transfer occurs via the SqSi (Qy) transition. Unless otherwise stated all comments made here on chi spectroscopy concern this transition. 

Attempts to detect a thermally populated triplet state ( A ) of 8 by ESR spectroscopy were unsuccessful. This was attributed to the high reactivity of the diradical, which presumably easily abstracts hydrogen atoms in hydrocarbon matrices (to form p-quinodimethane), even at very low temperatures. In this context, the triplet state of /7-phenylenebis(phenylmethylene) has been observed. Apparently, substitution of the carbenic hydrogens of 8 by phenyl groups confers sufficient stability (thermodynamic and perhaps kinetic) to the biradical, which allows its observation. According to variable-temperature ESR spectroscopy, the triplet state of /7-phenylenebis(phenylmethylene) is thermally populated and the singlet state lies 0.5-1 kcal/mol lower in energy [76-79]. 

In 1963, E. J. Bowen published his classic review The Photochemistry of Aromatic Hydrocarbon Solutions, in which he described two major reaction pathways for PAHs irradiated in organic solvents photodimerization and photooxidation mediated by the addition of singlet molecular oxygen, 02 ) (or simply 102), to a PAH (e.g., anthracene). For details on the spectroscopy and photochemistry of this lowest electronically excited singlet state of molecular oxygen, see Chapter 4.A, the monograph by Wayne (1988), and his review article (1994). For compilations of quantum yields of formation and of rate constants for the decay and reactions of 02( A), see Wilkinson et al., 1993 and 1995, respectively. 

Time-Resolved IR Spectroscopy. More recently, time-resolved IR (TRIR) experiments have been used to characterize species with lifetimes of micro-and even nanoseconds. Since IR spectra provide structural information in more detail than UV, this technique will be more powerful than TRUV-vis if one can find a carbene that can be detected and studied by this technique. To date, however, only one carbene has been studied by using TRIR. The matrix IR study shows that the planar triplet and twisted singlet states of 2-naphthyl(methoxycartbonyl) carbenes (NMC, 17) show distinctly different IR bands (see Section 3.1.4). Both NMC and NMC are detected by TRIR in solution and their kinetics have been studied. Such experiments provide clear cut data for the reaction kinetics as well as energetics of both states (see Sections 4.2 and 4.3... 

Gas-Phase Spectroscopy. The 336-nm absorption band of triplet imidogen was first observed by Eder in 1892 and has been the subject of numerous subsequent studies. The singlet state of NH absorbs at 324 nm. The CASSCF (6,5)/ CASPT2 level of theory predicts transitions at 323 and 293 nm for singlet and triplet imidogen, respectively. In each spin state, an electron is promoted from the sp hybrid lone pair to a singly occupied 2p orbital as shown below for NH. 

The excited-state behavior of 1,1,2,2-tetraphenylethene (TPE) has been studied by means of picosecond fluorescence, absorption, and Raman spectroscopies and picosecond optical calorimetry. It has been shown that, like stilbene, TPE derivatives substituted with minimally perturbing stereochemical labels such as methyl groups undergo efficient photoisomerization. However, unlike stilbene, strong spectroscopic evidence exists for the direct detection of the twisted excited singlet state, 5ip herein but traditionally designated as of TPE. 

H.-O. Hamaguchi and K. Iwata, Physical chemistry of the lowest excited singlet state of trans-stilbene in solution as studied by time-resolved Raman spectroscopy, Bull. Chem. Soc. Jpn. 2002, 75(5), 883. 

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