Electron spin polarization in radical pair recombination in micelles. Cage and supercage models

Photo-oxidation of diglycine in confined media Relaxation of longitudinal magnetization in spin correlated radical pairs

Time-resolved electron paramagnetic resonance spectra (X-band) of correlated radical pairs created in AOT reverse micelles are presented and simulated using the microreactor model. They are discussed in terms of the two-site model with a particular emphasis on longitudinal relaxation mechanisms. The geminate radical pair is created by photo-oxidation of dyglicine by the excited triplet states of an anthraquinone salt. The strong chemically induced electron spin polarization observed is due to three mechanisms: TM, RPM, and SCRPM. Relative contributions from these mechanisms depend on the water pool volume and the time of observation. There are three types of longitudinal relaxation in radical pairs. The first is relaxation of the RPM induced longitudinal magnetization in spin correlated radical pairs. The second is the longitudinal relaxation in radical pairs which are not correlated (with a zero value of the double quantum coherence). In such pairs, the generation of longitudinal magnetization due to RPM is impossible, and the spin-selective recombination of the pairs is ineffective. Under all experimental conditions, the first type of relaxation is slower than the second type. For both, the physical mechanism leading to relaxation is modulation of the Heisenberg electron spin exchange interaction. This is an internal relaxation process. The third relaxation type occurs in radical pairs due to ordinary longitudinal relaxation in non-interacting radicals. Normally, relaxation of the third type is the slowest of the three. This explains time and micelle size dependence of the relative contribution of RPM into TREPR spectra. It seems reasonable to suggest that the creation of the initial spin state populations is partially adiabatic.

Flexible Biradicals in Liquid and Supercritical Carbon Dioxide: The Exchange Interaction, the Chain Dynamics, and a Comparison with Conventional Solvents

X-band time-resolved electron paramagnetic resonance (TREPR) spectra of three flexible biradicals of varying chain length and structure were obtained in liquid and supercritical carbon dioxide (CO2) solutions and compared to conventional solvents. For C16 acyl-alkyl biradical 1a, an average spin exchange interaction between the radical centers, J(avg), was obtained by spectral simulation using a simple model for spin-correlated radical pairs (SCRPs) and a small amount of T2 relaxation from a previously established J modulation mechanism. A large solvent effect on J(avg) was observed for the first time, varying by almost 1 order of magnitude from CO2 (J(avg) = -120 +/- 10 MHz) to heavy mineral oil (-11 +/- 3 MHz) for 1a. For C15 bis(alkyl) biradical 1b, spectra obtained under supercritical conditions are only slightly different from those detected in liquid CO2 but differ from spectra taken in benzene. For C10 acyl-alkyl biradical 2a, more emissive spin polarization due to S-T- mixing is observed in CO2 than in benzene. These results are discussed in terms of solvent properties such as dielectric constant, viscosity, and specific interactions. Both chain dynamics and changes to the equilibrium distribution of end-to-end distances can alter J(avg) and the observed ratio of S-T0 to S-T- mixing; however, faster chain dynamics is concluded to be the most likely cause of the observed effects in these systems.

Kinetics of diffusion-assisted reactions in microheterogeneous systems

This review is focused on the basic theory of diffusion-assisted reactions in microheterogeneous systems, from porous solids to self-organized colloids and biomolecules. Rich kinetic behaviors observed experimentally are explained in a unified fashion using simple concepts of competing distance and time scales of the reaction and the embedding structure. We mainly consider pseudo-first-order reactions, such as luminescence quenching, described by the Smoluchowski type of equation for the reactant pair distribution function with a sink term defined by the reaction mechanism. Microheterogeneity can affect the microscopic rate constant. It also enters the evolution equation through various spatial constraints leading to complicated boundary conditions and, possibly, to the reduction of dimensionality of the diffusion space. The reaction coordinate and diffusive motion along this coordinate are understood in a general way, depending on the problem at hand. Thus, the evolution operator can describe translational and rotational diffusion of molecules in a usual sense, it can be a discrete random walk operator when dealing with hopping of adsorbates in solids, or it can correspond to conformational fluctuations in proteins. Mathematical formulation is universal but physical consequences can be different. Understanding the principal features of reaction kinetics in microheterogeneous systems enables one to extract important structural and dynamical information about the host environments by analyzing suitably designed experiments, it helps building effective strategies for computer simulations, and ultimately opens possibilities for designing systems with controllable reactivity properties.

Time resolved electron spin resonance of spin correlated micelle confined radical pairs: shape of the anti-phase structure

A new approach to the theory of the EPR of spin correlated radical pairs (SCRP) is formulated. It is based on spectral exchange methods as applied to the two-site model and takes into account explicitly both the motion of one quantum (transverse magnetization) and two quantum coherences (polarizations) of SCRPs. This innovation allows for the interpretation of anti phase structure (APS) spectral shape asymmetry and for the transformation of the initially created ST0RPM polarization into the APS spectral pattern. The results of this method as applied to micellized spin correlated radical pairs have been compared with the exact numerical solution of the corresponding stochastic Liouville equation and is commented on.