Issue 2, 2008

Solvent cage effects: the influence of radical mass and volume on the recombination dynamics of radical cage pairs generated by photolysis of [CpCH2CH2N(CH3)C(O)(CH2)nCH3Mo(CO)3]2 (n = 3, 8, 13, 18) (Cp = η5-C5H4) complexes

Abstract

The photochemistry of the [(CpR)Mo(CO)3]2 molecules, where CpR = η5-C5H4(CH2)2C(O)NCH3(CH2)nCH3 (n = 3, 8, 13, and 18), was examined using femtosecond pump–probe transient absorption spectroscopy. The goal of this study was to investigate the importance of radical size and mass on the dynamics and efficiency of geminate radical–radical recombination. The femtosecond results demonstrated the lack of any size/mass dependence of the recombination efficiency. This finding contrasts with results from a prior study that did find a size/mass dependence using a steady-state photochemical technique. To explain these conflicting results, it is proposed that the femtosecond pump–probe results are a measurement of the efficiency of primary geminate recombination whereas the steady-state method results are a measurement of the sum of primary and secondary geminate recombination efficiencies. The size/mass dependence is evident in the latter because secondary geminate recombination is a slower diffusive recombination process and therefore depends on the steric properties of the radicals. Although the existence of primary and secondary recombination channels is often taken for granted, experimental differentiation of primary and secondary caging has proven to be difficult because it is not possible for a single experimental technique to span the entire timescale for recombination of a radical cage pair and adequately resolve these recombination pathways.

Graphical abstract: Solvent cage effects: the influence of radical mass and volume on the recombination dynamics of radical cage pairs generated by photolysis of [CpCH2CH2N(CH3)C(O)(CH2)nCH3Mo(CO)3]2 (n = 3, 8, 13, 18) (Cp = η5-C5H4) complexes

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
14 Jun 2007
Accepted
06 Nov 2007
First published
29 Nov 2007

Photochem. Photobiol. Sci., 2008,7, 228-234

Solvent cage effects: the influence of radical mass and volume on the recombination dynamics of radical cage pairs generated by photolysis of [CpCH2CH2N(CH3)C(O)(CH2)nCH3Mo(CO)3]2 (n = 3, 8, 13, 18) (Cp = η5-C5H4) complexes

A. B. Oelkers, E. J. Schutte and D. R. Tyler, Photochem. Photobiol. Sci., 2008, 7, 228 DOI: 10.1039/B709005F

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