Triplet state concentration quenching

In most of the cases studied bimolecular kinetics are followed, the rate constants of product formation depending on the rate of light absorption and on nucleophile concentration. Triplet lifetimes (as determined from quenching studies) also depend on nucleophile concentration. This means that the excited state is quenched by the nucleophile, accompanied by either product formation or reversal to starting material. In view of the inherently different triplet lifetimes of different substrates, it is highly desirable to rely on rate constants rather than... 

The case of 2-nitrofuran is especially interesting. The quantum yield of disappearance of starting material in the photocyanation reaction is 0.51 at 313 nm and not dependent on the cyanide ion concentration. The quantum yield of product formation, however, is dependent on the concentration of cyanide, a limiting value of 0.51 is reached at approximately 1 mole l i cyanide. Kinetics are in agreement with the formation of an intermediate X (the nature of which needs to be clarified) which is subsequently intercepted by a nucleophile. Water competes with cyanide in this product-forming step. This cyanation has been both sensitized and quenched, thus very likely it proceeds via a triplet state. 

One possible explanation for the lack of correspondence between emitting and reacting states is reaction of the singlet. In the case of benzophenone, there is little question that the reaction involves only the triplet state, since triplet quenchers can effectively inhibit the reaction. This need not be the case with all carbonyl compounds. For example, it has been shown that both the n,ir singlet and triplet states can be involved in the Norrish type II cleavage of alkyl ketones (25-27). At high concentrations, piperylene quenches only that part of the 2-hexanone cleavage which arises from the triplet. The rate constants for... 

Oxygen has two possible interactions during the polymerization process [94], and these reactions are illustrated in Fig. 2. The first of these is a quenching of the excited triplet state of the initiator. When this quenching occurs the initiator will absorb the light and move to its excited state, but it will not form the radical or radicals that initiate the polymerization. A reduction in the quantum yield of the photoinitiator will be observed. The second interaction is the reaction with carbon based polymerizing radicals to form less reactive peroxy radicals. The rate constant for the formation of peroxy radicals has been found to be of the order of 109 1/mol-s [94], Peroxy radicals are known to have rate constants for reaction with methyl methacrylate of 0.241/mol-s [100], while polymer radicals react with monomeric methyl methacrylate with a rate constant of 5151/mol-s [100], This difference implies that peroxy radicals are nearly 2000 time less reactive. Obviously, this indicates that even a small concentration of oxygen in the system can severely reduce the polymerization rate. 

In a study of the photoisomerization of 4,4-dimethyl-2-cyclohexenone (8) to 6,6-dimethylbicyclo[3.1.0]-hexane-2-one (9) and 3-isopropyl-2-cyclo-pentenone (10), Chapman and Wampfler48 accounted for the pronounced effect of sensitizer concentration by such a self-quenching mechanism. The phenomenon was exhibited by four ketones with () lowest triplet states but not by benzophenone or acetophenone which have (w, n) triplet states.49... 

Photoreduction was quenched by high concentrations of biacetyl, slightly retarded by iodonaphthalene, but not affected by azulene or anthracene.113 These observations led to the unsatisfying conclusion that reduction proceeded via a triplet state which could be only selectively quenched. However, later work114 using flash photolysis showed that the benzophenone ketyl radical was generated upon irradiation of solutions of benzophenone and acridine, and that its predominant mode of disappearance was by reaction with... 

The rate ot quenching an excited stale is directly proportional to the concentration of quencher, and hence quantitative studies using a range of quencher concentrations can lead to information from which excited state lifetimes are derived. Use of a series of quenchers with different energies allows an estimate to be made of the excited state energy, especially for triplet states, since the efficiency of... 

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