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The photochemical dynamics of three classes of organic photoredox catalysts employed in organocatalyzed atom-transfer radical polymerization (O-ATRP) are studied using time-resolved optical transient absorption and fluorescence spectroscopy. The nine catalysts selected for study are examples of N-aryl and core-substituted dihydrophenazine, phenoxazine and phenothiazine compounds with varying propensities for control of polymerization outcomes. Excited singlet-state lifetimes extracted from the spectroscopic measurements are reported in N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF), dichloromethane (DCM), and toluene. Ultrafast (<200 fs to 3 ps) electronic relaxation of the photocatalysts after photoexcitation at near-UV wavelengths (318-390 nm) populates the first singlet excited state (S1). The S1-state lifetimes range from 130 ps to 40 ns with a considerable dependence on the photocatalyst structure and the solvent. The competition between ground electronic state recovery and intersystem crossing controls triplet state populations and is a minor pathway in the dihydrophenazine derivatives but is of greater importance for phenoxazine and phenothiazine catalysts. A comparison of our results with previously reported O-ATRP performances of the various photoredox catalysts shows that high triplet-state quantum yields are not a prerequisite for controlling polymer dispersity. For example, the photocatalyst 5,10-bis(4-cyanophenyl)-5,10-dihydrophenazine, shown previously to exert good polymerization control, possesses the shortest S1-state lifetime (135 ps in DMF and 180 ps in N,N-dimethylacetamide) among the nine examples reported here and a negligible triplet-state quantum yield. The results call for a re-evaluation of the excited-state properties of most significance in governing the photocatalytic behavior of organic photoredox catalysts in O-ATRP reactions.
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Time-resolved spectroscopic investigations of light-induced chemical reactions with universal detection capitalize recently on single-photon molecular probing using laser pulses in the extreme ultraviolet or X-ray regimes. Direct and simultaneous mappings of the time-evolving populations of ground-state reactants, Franck-Condon (FC) and transition state regions, excited-state intermediates and conical intersections (CI), and photoproducts in photochemical reactions utilize probe pulses that are broadband and energy-tunable. The limits on temporal resolution are set by the transit- or dwell-time of the photoexcited molecules at specific locations on the potential energy surface, typically ranging from a few femtoseconds to several hundred picoseconds. Femtosecond high-harmonic generation (HHG) meets the stringent demands for a universal spectroscopic probe of large regions of the intramolecular phase-space in unimolecular photochemical reactions. Extreme-ultraviolet and soft X-ray pulses generated in this manner with few-femtosecond or sub-femtosecond durations have enormous bandwidths, allowing the probing of many elements simultaneously through excitation or ionization of core-electrons, creating molecular movies that shed light on entire photochemical pathways. At free electron lasers (FELs), powerful investigations are also possible, recognizing their higher flux and tunability but more limited bandwidths. Femtosecond time-resolved X-ray transient absorption spectroscopy, in particular, is a valuable universal probe of reaction pathways that maps changes via the fingerprint core-to-valence resonances. The particular power of this method over valence-ionization probes lies in its unmatched element and chemical-site specificities. The elements carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen constitute the fundamental building blocks of life; photochemical reactions involving these elements are ubiquitous, diverse, and manifold. However, table-top HHG sources in the "water-window" region (280-550 eV), which encompasses the 1s-absorption edges of carbon (284 eV), nitrogen (410 eV), and oxygen (543 eV), are far from abundant or trivial. Recent breakthroughs in the laboratory have embraced this region by using long driving-wavelength optical parametric amplifiers coupled with differentially pumped high-pressure gas source cells. This has opened avenues to study a host of photochemical reactions in organic molecules using femtosecond time-resolved transient absorption at the carbon K-edge. In this Account, we summarize recent efforts to deploy a table-top carbon K-edge source to obtain crucial chemical insights into ultrafast, ultraviolet-induced chemical reactions involving ring-opening, nonadiabatic excited-state relaxation, bond dissociation and radical formation. The X-ray probe provides a direct spectroscopic viewport into the electronic characters and configurations of the valence electronic states through spectroscopic core-level transitions into the frontier molecular orbitals of the photoexcited molecules, laying fertile ground for the real-time mapping of the evolving valence electronic structure. The profound detail and mechanistic insights emerging from the pioneering experiments at the carbon K-edge are outlined here. Comparisons of the experimental methodology with other techniques employed to study similar reactions are drawn, where applicable and relevant. We show that femtosecond time-resolved X-ray transient absorption spectroscopy blazes a new trail in the study of nonadiabatic molecular dynamics. Despite table-top implementations being largely in their infancy, future chemical applications of the technique will set the stage for widely applicable, universal probes of photoinduced molecular dynamics with unprecedented temporal resolution.
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The ultraviolet-induced photochemistry of five-membered heterocyclic rings often involves ring opening as a prominent excited-state relaxation pathway. The identification of this particular photoinduced mechanism, however, presents a challenge for many experimental methods. We show that femtosecond X-ray transient absorption spectroscopy at the carbon K-edge (â¼284 eV) provides core-to-valence spectral fingerprints that enable the unambiguous identification of ring-opened isomers of organic heterocycles. The unique differences in the electronic structure between a carbon atom bonded to the oxygen in the ring versus a carbon atom set free of the oxygen in the ring-opened product are readily apparent in the X-ray spectra. Ultrafast ring opening via C-O bond fission occurs within â¼350 fs in 266-nm photoexcited furfural, as evidenced by fingerprint core (carbon 1s) electronic transitions into a nonbonding orbital of the open-chain carbene intermediate at 283.3 eV. The lack of recovery of the 1sπ* ground-state depletion in furfural at 286.4 eV indicates that internal conversion to the ground state is a minor channel. These experimental results, augmented by recent advances in the generation of isolated attosecond pulses at the carbon K-edge, will pave the way for probing ring-opened conical intersection dynamics in the future.
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A fundamental chlorine-containing radical, CH2Cl, is generated by the ultrafast photodissociation of CH2ICl at 266 nm and studied at both the carbon K edge (â¼284 eV) and chlorine L2,3 edge (â¼200 eV) by femtosecond X-ray transient absorption spectroscopy. The electronic structure of CH2Cl radical is characterized by a prominent new carbon 1s X-ray absorption feature at lower energy, resulting from a transition to the half-filled frontier carbon 2p orbital (singly occupied molecular orbital of the radical; SOMO). Shifts of other core-to-valence absorption features upon photodissociation of CH2ICl to yield ·CH2Cl indicate changes in the energies of core-level transitions of carbon and chlorine to the σ*(C-Cl) valence orbital. When the C-I bond breaks, loss of the electron-withdrawing iodine atom donates electron density back to carbon and shields the carbon 1s core level, resulting in a â¼0.8 eV red shift of the carbon 1s to σ*(C-Cl) transition. Meanwhile, the 2p inner shell of the chlorine atom in the radical is less impacted by the iodine atom removal, as demonstrated by the observation of a â¼0.6 eV blue shift of the transitions at the chlorine L2,3 edges, mainly due to the stronger C-Cl bond and the increased energy of the σ*(C-Cl) orbital. The results suggest that the shift in the carbon 1s orbital is greater than the shift in the σ*(C-Cl) orbital upon going from the closed-shell molecule to the radical. Ab initio calculations using the equation of motion coupled-cluster theory establish rigorous assignment and positions of the X-ray spectral features in the parent molecule and the location of the SOMO in the CH2Cl radical.
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The N-H···S hydrogen bond, even though classified as an unconventional hydrogen bond, is found to bear important structural implications on protein structure and folding. In this article, we report a gas-phase study of the N-H···S hydrogen bond between the model compounds of histidine (benzimidazole, denoted BIM) and methionine (dimethyl sulfide, diethyl sulfide, and tetrahydrothiophene, denoted Me2S, Et2S, and THT, respectively). A combination of laser spectroscopic methods such as laser-induced fluorescence (LIF), two-color resonant two-photon ionization (2cR2PI), and fluorescence depletion by infrared spectroscopy (FDIR) is used in conjunction with DFT and ab initio calculations to characterize the nature of this prevalent H-bonding interaction in simple bimolecular complexes. A single conformer was found to exist for the BIM-Me2S complex, whereas the BIM-Et2S and BIM-THT complexes showed the presence of three and two conformers, respectively. These conformers were characterized on the basis of IR spectroscopic results and electronic structure calculations. Quantum theory of atoms in molecules (QTAIM), natural bond orbital (NBO), and energy decomposition (NEDA) analyses were performed to investigate the nature of the N-H···S H-bond. Comparison of the results with the N-H···O type of interactions in BIM and indole revealed that the strength of the N-H···S H-bond is similar to N-H···O in these binary gas-phase complexes.
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Molecular triplet states constitute a crucial gateway in the photochemical reactions of organic molecules by serving as a reservoir for the excess electronic energy. Here, we report the remarkable sensitivity of soft X-ray transient absorption spectroscopy for following the intricate electronic structure changes accompanying the non-adiabatic transition of an excited molecule from the singlet to the triplet manifold. Core-level X-ray spectroscopy at the carbon-1s K-edge (284 eV) is applied to identify the role of the triplet state (T1, 3ππ*) in the ultraviolet-induced photochemistry of pentane-2,4-dione (acetylacetone, AcAc). The excited-state dynamics initiated at 266 nm (1ππ*, S2) is investigated with element- and site-specificity using broadband soft X-ray pulses produced by high harmonic generation, in combination with time-dependent density functional theory calculations of the X-ray spectra for the excited electronic singlet and triplet states. The evolution of the core-to-valence resonances at the carbon K-edge establishes an ultrafast population of the T1 state (3ππ*) in AcAc via intersystem crossing on a 1.5 ± 0.2 ps time scale.
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Although the hydrogen-bonding properties of the protic solvents are comparable, a comparison of the gas-phase structures of water with those of the alcohols reveals certain similarities as well as differences. In this work we report the microsolvated clusters of imidazole derivatives, Benzimidazole (BIM) and N-methylbenzimidazole (MBIM) by methanol (M) and ethanol (E) in supersonic jet using electronic and vibrational spectroscopy and compare them with their hydrated clusters. The cluster sizes up to 1:2 of BIM/MBIM with methanol and ethanol, and up to 1:3 in the case of MBIM-methanol were observed. Both the N-H···O and O-H···N bound structures were observed for the BIM-M1 and BIM-E1 complexes. The O-H···N bound structures of 1:1 complexes of MBIM were relatively more stable than their BIM counterparts by about â¼0.25 kcal mol-1. Three distinct conformations (anti, gauche, and gauche') were identified for the O-H···N bound complexes of BIM-E1 and MBIM-E1. IR spectroscopy of the doubly and triply solvated clusters (namely BIM-M2, MBIM-M2,3 and MBIM-E2) gives unequivocal proof of H-bonded bridges that originate from the N acceptor and terminate at the C(2)-H group, similar to the analogous water clusters. These studies confirm that the C(2)-H in imidazole plays an important role in its solvation, particularly in the case of polar solvents. Quantum chemical calculations performed at the DFT (B3LYP as well as dispersion-corrected functionals) and MP2 levels corroborate the experimental findings. Comparison of the QTAIM and NBO parameters for the pairwise solvent interactions in the clusters with those of methanol and ethanol homodimers reflects the co-operative nature of these H-bonding interactions.
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The significance of the heteroatom in influencing the acidity and binding affinity of the C(2)-H donor in five-membered heterocyclic rings is explored. The water clusters of benzoxazole (BOX) are studied in a supersonic jet by IR-UV double resonance spectroscopy and compared with those of benzimidazole (BIM) and its N-methyl derivative (MBIM). Two conformers are identified for the monohydrated cluster, both of which are O-H···N bound and differ in their orientation with respect to the intermolecular hydrogen bond. IR spectroscopy of the doubly hydrated cluster shows the presence of an intensity enhanced C(2)-H (carbon atom between the heteroatoms in the five-membered ring) stretching mode in addition to two red-shifted bound OH stretches, indicating that the water molecules form a hydrogen-bonded bridge encompassing the N acceptor and the weakly activated C(2)-H bond in oxazole. Comparison of the topological parameters of electron density, natural bond orbital analyses, and computed binding energies of the analogous hydrated structures of BOX, BIM, and MBIM indicates that the C(2)-H bond in the former is a more potent H-bond donor.
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Hierarchy among the weak noncovalent interactions such as van der Waals, electrostatic, hydrogen bonding, etc. dictates the secondary and tertiary structures of proteins as well as their interactions with various ligands. In this work, we investigate the competition between conventional (N-H···O) hydrogen bonds, unconventional (C-H···O) hydrogen bonds, and the van der Waals interaction in the model compounds of the chromophores of the amino acids, tryptophan, and histidine. These include indole (IND), benzimidazole (BIM), and its N-methylated analog (N-methylbenzimidazole, MBIM), which present multiple docking sites. The binary complexes of these molecules with ethers (dimethyl ether, diethyl ether, and tetrahydrofuran), which possess high proton affinity but lack acidic protons (thereby only act as hydrogen bond acceptors), are investigated. The complexes are formed in a supersonic jet and jointly studied by electronic and vibrational spectroscopy as well as quantum chemical calculations. Only the N-H···O bound structures are observed for the complexes of IND and BIM with ethers, although computations predict reasonably competent C-H···O type of structures. Remarkably, IND and BIM produce three (N-H···O) conformers with Me2O but single conformers with Et2O and THF. In the case of MBIM, which lacks a conventional hydrogen bond donor, no evidence for C(2)-H···O hydrogen bonds is seen; instead, the complexes are found to be bound purely by van der Waals interactions. The results indicate that strong N-H···O and even weak van der Waals interactions are thermodynamically favored over C(2)-H···O bound structures in these binary gas-phase complexes.
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The imidazole group, characterized by an activated C(2)-H bond sandwiched between two N atoms, occurs in several biomolecules including alkaloids, amino acids, and nucleobases. The speculated role of this potential hydrogen bond donor in shaping the solvation shell around the neutral imidazole moiety, however, remains unidentified. In contrast, hydrogen bonding and electrostatic interactions are commonly observed in the imidazolium cation where the acidity of the C(2)-H bond is markedly enhanced. Here, we show direct evidence of the weakly activated C(2)-H bond in shaping the solvation shell of neutral imidazole, via spectroscopic characterization of the water clusters (Wn, n = 2-4) of two model compounds, benzimidazole (BIM) and N-methylbenzimidazole (MBIM). Infrared spectra in the OH, NH, and CH stretching regions allow unambiguous detection of a N-WW-C(2)H binding motif in the doubly hydrated cluster of both molecules. Remarkably, H-bonded water bridges between the N atom and N-H bond in BIM-W3,4 clusters are switched to the C(2)-H bond in MBIM-W3,4 with comparable binding strength, indicating that the weakly activated C(2)-H bond in the neutral imidazole moiety can serve as a potent H-bond donor.
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Femtosecond extreme ultraviolet (XUV) transient absorption spectroscopy based on a high-harmonic generation source is used to study the 266 nm induced A-band photodissociation dynamics of allyl iodide (CH2 =CHCH2I). The photolysis of the C-I bond at this wavelength produces iodine atoms both in the ground ((2)P3/2, I) and spin-orbit excited ((2)P1/2, I*) states, with the latter as the predominant channel. Using XUV absorption at the iodine N4/5 edge (45-60 eV), the experiments constitute a direct probe of not only the long-lived atomic iodine reaction products but also the fleeting transition state region of the repulsive nIσ(∗) C-I excited states. Specifically, three distinct features are identified in the XUV transient absorption spectrum at 45.3 eV, 47.4 eV, and 48.4 eV (denoted transients A, B, and C, respectively), which arise from the repulsive valence-excited nσ(∗) states and project onto the high-lying core-excited states of the dissociating molecule via excitation of 4d(I) core electrons. Transients A and B originate from 4d(I) â n(I) core-to-valence transitions, whereas transient C is best assigned to a 4d(I) âσ(∗)(C-I) transition. The measured differential absorbance of these new features along with the I/I* branching ratios known from the literature is used to suggest a more definitive assignment, albeit provisional, of the transients to specific dissociative states within the A-band manifold. The transients are found to peak around 55 fs-65 fs and decay completely by 145 fs-185 fs, demonstrating the ability of XUV spectroscopy to map the evolution of reactants into products in real time. The similarity in the energies of transients A and B with analogous features observed in methyl iodide [Attar et al. J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 6, 5072, (2015)] together with the new observation of transient C in the present work provides a more complete picture of the valence electronic structure in the transition state region. The results provide a benchmark for theoretical calculations on the nature of core-excited states in halogenated hydrocarbons, especially in the transition state region along the C-I reaction coordinate.
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We present the IR spectroscopic investigations of benzimidazole (BIM), N-methylbenzimidazole (MBIM), and their monohydrates (W1) carried out in a supersonic jet in the region of N-H, C-H, and O-H stretching fundamentals. The C-H stretching modes in the monomers were studied with the aim of identifying the C(2)H mode (the C atom between the two N atoms in the imidazole moiety) which is known to play an important role as a H-bond donor in enzymes and ionic liquids. The assignment was aided by quantum chemical calculations as well as the literature data for FTIR measurements in the matrix. The monohydrated clusters were investigated for a global comparison with previously reported conformations of hydrated imidazole and related derivatives in the gas phase, matrices, and He nanodroplets. The BIM-W1 complex showed the presence of three conformers; an N-HâââO bound conformer (A') and two O-HâââN bound conformers, tilted towards the phenyl side (A) and the imidazole side (B), respectively. Although both A' and B type conformers have been reported in the literature, our experiments identify a new conformer (conformer A) in the gas phase for the first time which has also been reported in crystal structures of histidine containing proteins. The binding energies of the three conformers were found to be of comparable magnitude, with the N-HO bound structure lying in between (â¼0.02-0.04 kcal mol(-1)) the O-HâââN bound ones at the counterpoise corrected (cp) MP2/aug-cc-pVDZ level of theory. The formation of two distinct but closely related O-HâââN bound conformers (A and B) was additionally confirmed by studying the MBIM-W1 complex. Binding energies of the MBIM-W1 conformers were found to be higher than those of the analogous BIM-W1 conformers by 0.2 kcal mol(-1) at the cp-MP2/aug-cc-pVDZ level. The C(2)-HâââO or π bound water structures were not observed in the beam for monohydrated clusters of either monomer. While QTAIM calculations predicted secondary stabilization in the A type conformer by a C(4)-HO hydrogen bond, such an effect due to a possible C(2)-HO interaction was not found for conformer B. Experimentally, however, no spectral evidence was found for either the C(4)-HâââO or the C(2)-HâââO interaction.
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Benzimidazóis/química , Conformação Molecular , Água/química , Ligação de Hidrogênio , Modelos Moleculares , Espectrofotometria Infravermelho , TermodinâmicaRESUMO
The role of sulfhydryl (S-H) group as hydrogen bond donor is not as well studied as that of hydroxyl (O-H). In this work we report on the hydrogen-bonding properties of S-H donor in 1:1 complexes of H2S with diethyl ether (Et2O), dibutyl ether (Bu2O), and 1,4-dioxane (DO). The complexes were prepared in supersonic jet and investigated using infrared predissociation spectroscopy based on VUV photoionization detection. The IR spectra of all the complexes showed the presence of a broad, intensity-enhanced, and red-shifted hydrogen-bonded S-H stretching transition. The S-H stretching frequency was red-shifted by 46, 63, and 49 cm(-1) in H2S-Et2O, H2S-Bu2O, and H2S-DO complexes, respectively, suggesting that all the complexes are S-H···O bound. Computationally, two different S-H···O bound structures, namely, "coplanar" and "perpendicular", were obtained as the minimum energy structures for these complexes at the MP2/6-311++G** level, with the former being the global minimum. However, with Dunning-type basis sets (aug-cc-pVDZ and aug-cc-pVTZ) only the perpendicular structures were found to be stable at the MP2 level. The large widths of the bound S-H stretch observed in the experimental spectra (fwhm of 35 to 80 cm(-1)) were attributed to inhomogeneous broadening due to multiple conformations of the alkyl chains in the coplanar and perpendicular structures populated in the jet. The frequency shifts in the hydrogen-bonded S-H stretching mode as well as the bond dissociation energies of all S-H···Y (YâO,S) complexes of H2S, which includes the H2S dimer and H2S-methanol (H2S-MeOH) complexes reported in our previous work (ChemPhysChem 2013, 14, 905-914), were found to scale linearly with the proton affinity of the acceptor molecule. In this regard the S-H group, like O-H, is found to conform to the widely accepted acid-base nature of hydrogen-bonding interactions.
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The nature of the S−Hâ â â S hydrogen-bonding interaction in the H2 S dimer and its structure has been the focus of several theoretical studies. This is partly due to its structural similarity and close relationship with the well-studied water dimer and partly because it represents the simplest prototypical example of hydrogen bonding involving a sulfur atom. Although there is some IR data on the H2 S dimer and higher homomers from cold matrix experiments, there are no IR spectroscopic reports on S−Hâ â â S hydrogen bonding in the gas phase to-date. We present experimental evidence using VUV ionization-detected IR-predissociation spectroscopy (VUV-ID-IRPDS) for this weak hydrogen-bonding interaction in the H2 S dimer. The proton-donating S−H bond is found to be red-shifted by 31 cm(-1) . We were also able to observe and assign the symmetric (ν1 ) stretch of the acceptor and an unresolved feature owing to the free S−H of the donor and the antisymmetric (ν3 ) SH stretch of the acceptor. In addition we show that the heteromolecular H2 S-MeOH complex, for which both S−Hâ â â O and O−Hâ â â S interactions are possible, is S-Hâ â â O bound.
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Sulfeto de Hidrogênio/química , Metanol/química , Dimerização , Ligação de Hidrogênio , Modelos Moleculares , Espectrofotometria InfravermelhoRESUMO
Hydrogen bonding interaction between the ROH hydrogen bond donor and sulfur atom as an acceptor has not been as well characterized as the O-H···O interaction. The strength of O-H···O interactions for a given donor has been well documented to scale linearly with the proton affinity (PA) of the H-bond acceptor. In this regard, O-H···O interactions conform to the acid-base formalism. The importance of such correlation is to be able to estimate molecular property of the complex from the known thermodynamic data of its constituents. In this work, we investigate the properties of O-H···S interaction in the complexes of the H-bond donor and sulfur containing acceptors of varying proton affinity. The hydrogen bonded complexes of p-Fluorophenol (FP) with four different sulfur containing acceptors and their oxygen analogues, namely H2O/H2S, MeOH/MeSH, Me2O/Me2S and tetrahydrofuran (THF)/tetrahydrothiophene (THT) were characterized in regard to its S1-S0 excitation spectra and the IR spectra. Two-color resonantly enhanced multiphoton ionization (2c-R2PI), resonant ion-dip infrared (RIDIR) spectroscopy, and IR-UV hole burning spectroscopic techniques were used to probe the hydrogen bonds in the aforementioned complexes. The spectroscopic data along with the ab initio calculations were used to deduce the strength of the O-H···S hydrogen bonding interactions in these system relative to that in the O-H···O interactions. It was found that, despite being dominated by the dispersion interaction, the O-H···S interactions conform to the acid-base formalism as in the case of more conventional O-H···O interactions. The dissociation energies and the red shifts in the O-H stretching frequencies correlated very well with the proton affinity of the acceptors. However, the O-H···S interaction did not follow the same correlation as that in the O-H···O H-bond. The energy decomposition analysis showed that the dissociation energies and the red shifts in the O-H stretching frequencies follow a unified correlation if these two parameters were correlated with the sum of the charge transfer and the exchange component of the total binding energy.
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Furanos/química , Sulfeto de Hidrogênio/química , Metanol/química , Fenóis/química , Tiofenos/química , Água/química , Ligação de Hidrogênio , Modelos Moleculares , Conformação Molecular , Espectrometria de Massas por Ionização por Electrospray , TermodinâmicaRESUMO
We study the molecular-scale structure of the surface of Reline, a DES made from urea and choline chloride, using heterodyne-detected vibrational sum frequency generation (HD-VSFG). Reline absorbs water when exposed to the ambient atmosphere, and following structure-specific changes at the Reline/air interface is crucial and difficult. For Reline (dry, 0 wt %, w/w, water) we observe vibrational signatures of both urea and choline ions at the surface. Upon increase of the water content, there is a gradual depletion of urea from the surface, an enhanced alignment, and an enrichment of the surface with choline cations, indicating surface speciation of ChCl. Above 40% w/w water content, choline cations abruptly deplete from the surface, as evidenced by the decrease of the vibrational signal of the -CH2- groups of choline and the rapid rise of a water signal. Above 60% w/w water content, the surface spectrum of aqueous Reline becomes indistinguishable from that of neat water.
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Organic photocatalysts (PCs) are gaining popularity in applications of photoredox catalysis, but few studies have explored their modus operandi. We report a detailed mechanistic investigation of the electron transfer activation step of organocatalyzed atom transfer radical polymerization (O-ATRP) involving electronically excited organic PCs and a radical initiator, methyl 2-bromopropionate (MBP). This study compares nine N-aryl modified PCs possessing dihydrophenazine, phenoxazine, or phenothiazine core chromophores. Transient electronic and vibrational absorption spectroscopies over subpicosecond to nanosecond and microsecond time intervals, respectively, track spectroscopic signatures of both the reactants and products of photoinduced electron transfer in N,N-dimethylformamide, dichloromethane, and toluene solutions. The rate coefficients for electron transfer exhibit a range of values up to â¼1010 M-1 s-1 influenced systematically by the PC structures. These rate coefficients are an order of magnitude smaller for catalysts with charge transfer character in their first excited singlet (S1) or triplet (T1) states than for photocatalysts with locally excited character. The latter species show nearly diffusion-limited rate coefficients for the electron transfer to MBP. The derived kinetic parameters are used to model the contributions to electron transfer from the S1 state of each PC for different concentrations of MBP. Comparisons of singlet and triplet reactivity for one of the phenoxazine PCs reveal that the rate coefficient kET(T1) = (2.7 ± 0.3) × 107 M-1 s-1 for electron transfer from the T1 state is 2 orders of magnitude lower than that from the S1 state, kET(S1) = (2.6 ± 0.4) × 109 M-1 s-1. The trends in bimolecular electron transfer rate coefficients are accounted for using a modified Marcus theory for dissociative electron transfer.
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Elétrons , Fenotiazinas , Catálise , Oxazinas , PolimerizaçãoRESUMO
The rapid development of new applications of photoredox catalysis has so far outpaced the mechanistic studies important for rational design of new classes of catalysts. Here, we report the use of ultrafast transient absorption spectroscopic methods to reveal both mechanistic and kinetic details of multiple sequential steps involved in an organocatalyzed atom transfer radical polymerization reaction. The polymerization system studied involves a N,N-diaryl dihydrophenazine photocatalyst, a radical initiator (methyl 2-bromopropionate) and a monomer (isoprene). Time-resolved spectroscopic measurements spanning sub-picosecond to microseconds (i.e., almost 8 orders of magnitude of time) track the formation and loss of key reactive intermediates. These measurements identify both the excited state of the photocatalyst responsible for electron transfer and the radical intermediates participating in propagation reactions, as well as quantifying their lifetimes. The outcomes connect the properties of N,N-diaryl dihydrophenazine organic photocatalysts with the rates of sequential steps in the catalytic cycle.
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The photochemical decarboxylation of carboxylic acids is a versatile route to free radical intermediates for chemical synthesis. However, the sequential nature of this multi-step reaction renders the mechanism challenging to probe. Here, we employ a 100 kHz mid-infrared probe in a transient absorption spectroscopy experiment to track the decarboxylation of cyclohexanecarboxylic acid in acetonitrile-d3 over picosecond to millisecond timescales using a photooxidant pair (phenanthrene and 1,4-dicyanobenzene). Selective excitation of phenanthrene at 256 nm enables a diffusion-limited photoinduced electron transfer to 1,4-dicyanobenzene. A measured time offset in the rise of the CO2 byproduct reports on the lifetime (520 ± 120 ns) of a reactive carboxyl radical in solution, and spectroscopic observation of the carboxyl radical confirm its formation as a reaction intermediate. Precise clocking of the lifetimes of radicals generated in situ by an activated C-C bond fission will pave the way for improving the photocatalytic selectivity and turnover.
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Disulfide bonds are pivotal for the structure, function, and stability of proteins, and understanding ultraviolet (UV)-induced S-S bond cleavage is highly relevant for elucidating the fundamental mechanisms underlying protein photochemistry. Here, the near-UV photodecomposition mechanisms in gas-phase dimethyl disulfide, a prototype system with a S-S bond, are probed by ultrafast transient X-ray absorption spectroscopy. The evolving electronic structure during and after the dissociation is simultaneously monitored at the sulfur L1,2,3-edges and the carbon K-edge with 100 fs (FWHM) temporal resolution using the broadband soft X-ray spectrum from a femtosecond high-order harmonics light source. Dissociation products are identified with the help of ADC and RASPT2 electronic-structure calculations. Rapid dissociation into two CH3S radicals within 120 ± 30 fs is identified as the major relaxation pathway after excitation with 267 nm radiation. Additionally, a 30 ± 10% contribution from asymmetric CH3S2 + CH3 dissociation is indicated by the appearance of CH3 radicals, which is, however, at least partly the result of multiphoton excitation.