Ultrafast excited state proton transfer dynamics of 1,2-dihydroquinolines in methanol solution

Isoenergetic two-photon excitation enhances solvent-to-solute excited-state proton transfer

Two-photon excitation (TPE) is an attractive means for controlling chemistry in both space and time. Since isoenergetic one- and two-photon excitations (OPE and TPE) in non-centrosymmetric molecules are allowed to reach the same excited state, it is usually assumed that they produce similar excited-state reactivity. We compare the solvent-to-solute excited-state proton transfer of the super photobase FR0-SB following isoenergetic OPE and TPE. We find up to 62% increased reactivity following TPE compared to OPE. From steady-state spectroscopy, we rule out the involvement of different excited states and find that OPE and TPE spectra are identical in non-polar solvents but not in polar ones. We propose that differences in the matrix elements that contribute to the two-photon absorption cross sections lead to the observed enhanced isoenergetic reactivity, consistent with the predictions of our high-level coupled-cluster-based computational protocol. We find that polar solvent configurations favor greater dipole moment change between ground and excited states, which enters the probability for TPE as the absolute value squared. This, in turn, causes a difference in the Franck-Condon region reached via TPE compared to OPE. We conclude that a new method has been found for controlling chemical reactivity via the matrix elements that affect two-photon cross sections, which may be of great utility for spatial and temporal precision chemistry.

Stepwise versus concerted mechanism of photoinduced proton transfer in sec-1,2-dihydroquinolines: effect of excitation wavelength and solvent composition

Excited-state proton transfer in 2,2,4,6-tetramethyl-1,2-dihydroquinoline was studied in dependence on solvent composition in binary mixtures of MeOH with nonpolar pentane and polar acetonitrile by an ultrafast pump-probe technique with λ(pump) = 350 nm and spectroscopic detection. The concerted mechanism was observed earlier at λ(pump) = 308 nm, whereas the stepwise mechanism is clearly observed at λ(pump) = 350 nm. The "fast" (200 fs) component is attributed to PT from MeOH molecule to the C(3) of the heterocycle to give the carbocationic structure in the highest vibrational ground state. This process is succeeded by the "slow" PT from the NH group to the MeO(-) anion in the cluster of MeOH molecules to give corresponding 2,3-dihydroquinoline. The former process is independent of the solvent composition, whereas the latter depends on the solvent composition in the MeOH-C5H12 mixtures with a characteristic time increasing from 15 ps in bulk MeOH to 150 ps in the mixture containing 2 vol % MeOH. This result is explained in terms of stabilization of the ionic species in the less polar microenvironment.