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Giussani A, Worth GA. A First Proposal on the Nitrobenzene Photorelease Mechanism of NO 2 and Its Relation to NO Formation through a Roaming Mechanism. J Phys Chem Lett 2024; 15:2216-2221. [PMID: 38373198 PMCID: PMC10910573 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpclett.3c03457] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/09/2023] [Revised: 02/13/2024] [Accepted: 02/14/2024] [Indexed: 02/21/2024]
Abstract
Despite the fact that NO2 is considered to be the main photoproduct of nitrobenzene photochemistry, no mechanism has ever been proposed to rationalize its formation. NO photorelease is instead a more studied process, probably due to its application in the drug delivery sector and the study of roaming mechanisms. In this contribution, a photoinduced mechanism accounting for the formation of NO2 in nitrobenzene is theorized based on CASPT2, CASSCF, and DFT electronic structure calculations and CASSCF classical dynamics. A triplet nπ* state is shown to evolve toward C-NO2 dissociation, being, in fact, the only low-lying excited state favoring such a deformation. Along the triplet dissociation path, the possibility to decay to the singlet ground state results in the frustration of the dissociation and in the recombination of the fragments, either back to the nitro or the nitrite isomer. The thermal decomposition of the latter to NO constitutes globally a roaming mechanism of NO formation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Angelo Giussani
- Instituto
de Ciencia Molecular, Universitat de València, Apartado 22085, ES-46071 Valencia, Spain
| | - Graham A. Worth
- Department
of Chemistry, University College London, 20 Gordon Street, London WC1H 0AJ, U.K.
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2
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Wang PY, Hsu YC, Chen PH, Chen GY, Liao YK, Cheng PY. Solvent-polarity dependence of ultrafast excited-state dynamics of trans-4-nitrostilbene. Phys Chem Chem Phys 2024; 26:788-807. [PMID: 38088777 DOI: 10.1039/d3cp05245a] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/22/2023]
Abstract
Ultrafast excited-state dynamics of the simplest nitrostilbenes, namely trans-4-nitrostilbene (t-NSB), was studied in solvents of various polarities with ultrafast broadband time-resolved fluorescence and transient absorption spectroscopies, and by quantum-chemical computations. The results revealed that the initially excited S1(ππ*) state deactivation dynamics is strongly influenced by the solvent polarity. Specifically, the t-NSB S1-state lifetime decreases by three orders of magnitude from ∼60 ps in high-polarity solvents to ∼60 fs in nonpolar solvents. The strong solvent-polarity dependence arises from the differences in dipole moments among the S1 and relevant states, including the major intersystem crossing (ISC) receiver triplet states, and therefore, the solvent polarity can modulate their relative energies and ISC rates. In nonpolar solvents, the sub-100 fs lifetime is due to a combination of efficient ISC and internal conversion. In medium-polarity solvents, the S1-state population decays via a competing ISC relaxation mechanism in a biphasic manner, and the ISC rates are found to obey the inverse energy gap law of the strong coupling case. In high-polarity solvents, the S1 state is stabilized to a much lower energy such that ISC becomes energetically infeasible, and the S1 state decays via barrier crossing along the torsion angle of the central ethylenic bond to the nonfluorescent perpendicular configuration. Regardless of the initial S1-state deactivation pathways in various solvents, the excited-state population is ultimately trapped in the metastable T1-state perpendicular configuration, at which a slower ISC occurs to bring the system to the ground state and bifurcate into either trans or cis form of NSB.
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Affiliation(s)
- Peng-Yun Wang
- Department of Chemistry, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan, 30043, Republic of China.
| | - Yu-Cheng Hsu
- Department of Chemistry, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan, 30043, Republic of China.
| | - Pin-Hsun Chen
- Department of Chemistry, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan, 30043, Republic of China.
| | - Guan-Yu Chen
- Department of Chemistry, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan, 30043, Republic of China.
| | - Yi-Kai Liao
- Department of Chemistry, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan, 30043, Republic of China.
| | - Po-Yuan Cheng
- Department of Chemistry, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan, 30043, Republic of China.
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3
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Crane S, Garrow M, Lane PD, Robertson K, Waugh A, Woolley JM, Stavros VG, Paterson MJ, Greaves SJ, Townsend D. The Value of Different Experimental Observables: A Transient Absorption Study of the Ultraviolet Excitation Dynamics Operating in Nitrobenzene. J Phys Chem A 2023; 127:6425-6436. [PMID: 37494478 PMCID: PMC10424241 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpca.3c02654] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/21/2023] [Revised: 06/16/2023] [Indexed: 07/28/2023]
Abstract
Excess energy redistribution dynamics operating in nitrobenzene under hexane and isopropanol solvation were investigated using ultrafast transient absorption spectroscopy (TAS) with a 267 nm pump and a 340-750 nm white light continuum probe. The use of a nonpolar hexane solvent provides a proxy to the gas-phase environment, and the findings are directly compared with a recent time-resolved photoelectron imaging (TRPEI) study on nitrobenzene using the same excitation wavelength [L. Saalbach et al., J. Phys. Chem. A 2021, 125, 7174-7184]. Of note is the observation of a 1/e lifetime of 3.5-6.7 ps in the TAS data that was absent in the TRPEI measurements. This is interpreted as a dynamical signature of the T2 state in nitrobenzene─analogous to observations in the related nitronaphthalene system, and additionally supported by previous quantum chemistry calculations. The discrepancy between the TAS and TRPEI measurements is discussed, with the overall findings providing an example of how different spectroscopic techniques can exhibit varying sensitivity to specific steps along the overall reaction coordinate connecting reactants to photoproducts.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stuart
W. Crane
- Institute
of Photonics & Quantum Sciences, Heriot-Watt
University, Edinburgh EH14 4AS, U.K.
| | - Malcolm Garrow
- Institute
of Chemical Sciences, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh EH14 4AS, U.K.
| | - Paul D. Lane
- Institute
of Chemical Sciences, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh EH14 4AS, U.K.
| | - Kate Robertson
- Institute
of Photonics & Quantum Sciences, Heriot-Watt
University, Edinburgh EH14 4AS, U.K.
| | - Alex Waugh
- Institute
of Photonics & Quantum Sciences, Heriot-Watt
University, Edinburgh EH14 4AS, U.K.
| | - Jack M. Woolley
- Department
of Physics, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, U.K.
| | - Vasilios G. Stavros
- School
of Chemistry, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT, U.K.
| | - Martin J. Paterson
- Institute
of Chemical Sciences, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh EH14 4AS, U.K.
| | - Stuart J. Greaves
- Institute
of Chemical Sciences, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh EH14 4AS, U.K.
| | - Dave Townsend
- Institute
of Photonics & Quantum Sciences, Heriot-Watt
University, Edinburgh EH14 4AS, U.K.
- Institute
of Chemical Sciences, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh EH14 4AS, U.K.
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4
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Shin HH, Jeong J, Nam Y, Lee KS, Yeon GJ, Lee H, Lee SY, Park S, Park H, Lee JY, Kim ZH. Vibrationally Hot Reactants in a Plasmon-Assisted Chemical Reaction. J Am Chem Soc 2023. [PMID: 37220278 DOI: 10.1021/jacs.3c02681] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/25/2023]
Abstract
Recent studies on plasmon-assisted chemical reactions postulate that the hot electrons of plasmon-excited nanostructures may induce a non-thermal vibrational activation of metal-bound reactants. However, the postulate has not been fully validated at the level of molecular quantum states. We directly and quantitatively prove that such activation occurs on plasmon-excited nanostructures: The anti-Stokes Raman spectra of reactants undergoing a plasmon-assisted reaction reveal that a particular vibrational mode of the reactant is selectively excited, such that the reactants possess >10 times more energy in the mode than is expected from the fully thermalized molecules at the given local temperature. Furthermore, a significant portion (∼20%) of the excited reactant is in vibrational overtone states with energies exceeding 0.5 eV. Such mode-selective multi-quantum excitation could be fully modeled by the resonant electron-molecule scattering theory. Such observations suggest that the vibrationally hot reactants are created by non-thermal hot electrons, not by thermally heated electrons or phonons of metals. The result validates the mechanism of plasmon-assisted chemical reactions and further offers a new method to explore the vibrational reaction control on metal surfaces.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hyun-Hang Shin
- Department of Chemistry, Seoul National University; Gwanak-gu, Seoul 08826, Republic of Korea
| | - Jaeyoung Jeong
- Department of Chemistry, Seoul National University; Gwanak-gu, Seoul 08826, Republic of Korea
| | - Yeonsig Nam
- Department of Chemistry, Sungkyunkwan University, Gyeonggi-do, Suwon 16419, Republic of Korea
| | - Kang Sup Lee
- Department of Chemistry, Seoul National University; Gwanak-gu, Seoul 08826, Republic of Korea
| | - Gyu Jin Yeon
- Department of Chemistry, Seoul National University; Gwanak-gu, Seoul 08826, Republic of Korea
| | - Hankyul Lee
- Department of Chemistry, Seoul National University; Gwanak-gu, Seoul 08826, Republic of Korea
| | - Seung Yeon Lee
- Department of Chemistry, Seoul National University; Gwanak-gu, Seoul 08826, Republic of Korea
| | - Sangwon Park
- Department of Chemistry, Seoul National University; Gwanak-gu, Seoul 08826, Republic of Korea
| | - Hyungjun Park
- Department of Chemistry, Seoul National University; Gwanak-gu, Seoul 08826, Republic of Korea
| | - Jin Yong Lee
- Department of Chemistry, Sungkyunkwan University, Gyeonggi-do, Suwon 16419, Republic of Korea
| | - Zee Hwan Kim
- Department of Chemistry, Seoul National University; Gwanak-gu, Seoul 08826, Republic of Korea
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Walz F, Pandey S, Tan LZ, Shivaram N. Electric field measurement of femtosecond time-resolved four-wave mixing signals in molecules. OPTICS EXPRESS 2022; 30:36065-36072. [PMID: 36258543 DOI: 10.1364/oe.470925] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/20/2022] [Accepted: 09/09/2022] [Indexed: 06/16/2023]
Abstract
We report an experiment to measure the femtosecond electric field of the signal emitted from an optical third-order nonlinear interaction in carbon dioxide molecules. Using degenerate four-wave mixing with femtosecond near infrared laser pulses in combination with the ultra-weak femtosecond pulse measurement technique of TADPOLE, we measure the nonlinear signal electric field in the time domain at different time delays between the interacting pulses. The chirp extracted from the temporal phase of the emitted nonlinear signal is found to sensitively depend on the electronic and rotational contributions to the nonlinear response. While the rotational contribution results in a nonlinear signal chirp close to the chirp of the input pulses, the electronic contribution results in a significantly higher chirp which changes with time delay. Our work demonstrates that electric field-resolved nonlinear spectroscopy offers detailed information on nonlinear interactions at ultrafast time scales.
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Saalbach L, Kotsina N, Crane SW, Paterson MJ, Townsend D. Ultraviolet Excitation Dynamics of Nitrobenzenes. J Phys Chem A 2021; 125:7174-7184. [PMID: 34379417 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpca.1c04893] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
Time-resolved photoelectron imaging was used to investigate nonadiabatic processes operating in the excited electronic states of nitrobenzene and three methyl-substituted derivatives: 3,5-, 2,6-, and 2,4-dimethylnitrobenzene. The primary goal was evaluating the dynamical impact of the torsional angle between the NO2 group and the benzene ring plane-something previously implicated in mediating the propensity for branching into different photodissociation pathways (NO vs NO2 elimination). Targeted, photoinitiated release of NO radicals is of interest for clinical medicine applications, and there is a need to establish basic structure-dynamics-function principles in systematically varied model systems following photoexcitation. Within our 200 ps experimental detection window, we observed no significant differences in the excited-state lifetimes exhibited by all species under study using a 267 nm pump and ionization with an intense 400 nm probe. In agreement with previous theoretical predictions, this suggests that the initial energy redistribution dynamics within the singlet and triplet manifolds are driven by motions localized predominantly on the NO2 group. Our findings also imply that both NO and NO2 elimination occur from a vibrationally hot ground state on extended (nanosecond) timescales, and any variations in NO vs NO2 branching upon site-selective methylation are due to steric effects influencing isomerization prior to dissociation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lisa Saalbach
- Institute of Photonics & Quantum Sciences, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh EH14 4AS, U.K
| | - Nikoleta Kotsina
- Institute of Photonics & Quantum Sciences, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh EH14 4AS, U.K
| | - Stuart W Crane
- Institute of Photonics & Quantum Sciences, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh EH14 4AS, U.K
| | - Martin J Paterson
- Institute of Chemical Sciences, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh EH14 4AS, U.K
| | - Dave Townsend
- Institute of Photonics & Quantum Sciences, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh EH14 4AS, U.K.,Institute of Chemical Sciences, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh EH14 4AS, U.K
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Thurston R, Brister MM, Belkacem A, Weber T, Shivaram N, Slaughter DS. Time-resolved ultrafast transient polarization spectroscopy to investigate nonlinear processes and dynamics in electronically excited molecules on the femtosecond time scale. THE REVIEW OF SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENTS 2020; 91:053101. [PMID: 32486703 DOI: 10.1063/1.5144482] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/27/2019] [Accepted: 04/12/2020] [Indexed: 06/11/2023]
Abstract
We report a novel experimental technique to investigate ultrafast dynamics in photoexcited molecules by probing the 3rd-order nonlinear optical susceptibility. A non-collinear 3-pulse scheme is developed to probe the ultrafast dynamics of excited electronic states using the optical Kerr effect. Optical homodyne and optical heterodyne detections are demonstrated to measure the 3rd-order nonlinear optical response for the S1 excited state of liquid nitrobenzene, which is populated by 2-photon absorption of a 780 nm 40 fs excitation pulse.
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Affiliation(s)
- Richard Thurston
- Chemical Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
| | - Matthew M Brister
- Chemical Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
| | - Ali Belkacem
- Chemical Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
| | - Thorsten Weber
- Chemical Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
| | - Niranjan Shivaram
- Chemical Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
| | - Daniel S Slaughter
- Chemical Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
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