On the ground state and first excited state geometries of syn-sesquinorbornene

Extende Hückel calculations on the title compound ($\text{1}$) predict hinge-like bending of the double bond corresponding to interplanar angles of 167° for the ground state and 210° for the first excited state. The predictions are discussed in terms of hyperconjugative interactions.     

Formation and decay of the triplet excited state of pyridine

A pulse radiolysis study of the formation and decay of the triplet excited state of liquid pyridine has been performed using quenching techniques. The pyridine triplet excited state is observed with an absorption band at lambda = 310 nm and has a first-order decay with a lifetime of 72 ns. Stern-Volmer plots of the quenching of the pyridine triplet excited state with anthracene, naphthalene, and biphenyl give its yield to be 1.3 molecules/100 eV. This value is very similar to the previously determined yield of 1.25 molecules/100 eV for dipyridyl, the predominant condensed-phase product in the gamma-radiolysis of liquid pyridine. The rate coefficient for pyridine triplet excited-state scavenging by oxygen is estimated to be 6.6 x 10(9) M(-1) s(-1). Oxygen may also scavenge the electron precursor to the pyridine triplet excited state, whereas nitrous oxide is observed to have little effect. A pyridyl radical-pyridine (dimer) complex produced in the pulse radiolysis of neat liquid pyridine is detected at lambda = 390 nm and is consistent with iodine scavenging effects. Formation of the pyridiniumyl radical cation-pyridine charge-transfer complex is proposed to be insignificant in liquid pyridine.     

Triplet state decay and spin-lattice relaxation rate constants in tyrosinate and tryptophan

The decay rates and spin-lattice relaxation rates are presented for the lowest excited triplet state in tryptophan and in tyrosinate in zero-field at 1.34 K.     

Bonding in the ground state and excited states of copper-alkene complexes

The ground state and ¹B₂ excited state of Cu(C₂H₄)⁺ and of CuX(C₂H₄) (X  F, Cl) have been investigated by the Hartree-Fock-Slater (HFS) method. The main metal-ligand interactions in the ground state are ethene π → Cu 4s donation and Cu 3d_π → ethene π^* backdonation, which have comparable contributions to the metal-ligand bond strength. The excitation of CuX(C₂H₄) does not involve an alkene π → metal charge transfer (LMCT), but instead is metal 3d → alkene π^* charge transfer (MLCT) in character. The implications for the photochemistry of olefin-copper(I) complexes are discussed.     

Intermediate case radiationless decay: the excited state dynamics of pyrazine

This paper reports new measurements of the non-exponential fluorescence decay of pyrazine, covering the time range 0.1-200 ns. The restits of our measurements remove the inconsistencies between experiment and the Frad-Lahmani-Tramer-Tric model of the radiationless decay in this molecule. In particular, our data show that the triplet component of the mixed singlet-triplet levels does increase with increasing triplet density of states. The effective density of triplet levels determined from our experimental data exceeds the theoretical density of vibrational levels. We propose that at the excitation levels achieved in the triplet manifold there is extensive scrambling of rotational states, but that conservation of nuclear spin states permits a level with total angular momentum quantum number f to couple to only (2J + 1/4) of the 2J+1 rotational levels built on one vibration. The appropriate theoretical density of states to be compared with experiment is then obtained by multiplying the vibrational density of states by J2. Good agreement is found between experimentally determined and calculated densities of states.     

Promoting-mode free formalism for excited state radiationless decay process with Duschinsky rotation effect

In the present work, through the path integral of Gaussian type correlation function, a new formalism based on Fermi-Golden Rule for calculating the rate constant of nonradiative decay process with Duschinsky rotation effect in polyatomic molecules is developed. The advantage of the present path-integral formalism is promoting-mode free. In order to get the rate constant, a "transition rate matrix" needs to be calculated. The rate constant calculated previously is only an approximation of diagonal elements of our "transition rate matrix " . The total rate should be the summation over all the matrix elements.     

Ab initio study of the ground and first excited state of LiAr

The intermolecular potentials for the X ²σ and A²Π states of Li… Ar were studied by a variety of multiconfiguration, single-configuration, and perturbation methods (CASPT 2). The A ²Π excited state was calculated to have a well depth of 811 cm^?1 at an internuclear separation of 2.59 Å, in excellent agreement with the 810 cm^?1 derived from experimental data. A smaller well of 77 cm^?1 was found for the X ²σ ground state at an intermolecular separation of 4.8 Å. These results are in better agreement with experimental results than were the previously reported pseudopotential calculations. The comparison of CI calculation with the CAPST 2 results shows that the latter is able to give good results for interacting metal–rare gas systems. © 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

A violet emission from optically excited mercury vapour. Kinetics of the formation and decay of excited dimers and trimers

A new electronic systems has been observed from excited Hg vapour, which is assigned to collisionally induced emission from the Hg₂ O^±_g first excited states of the dimer: Hg₂O^±_g + M → 2Hg(6 ¹S₀) + M + hv(γ_max 3950 A). For M = N₂, the rate coefficient is 5.3(±0.7) × 10^?19 cm³ molecule^?1 at 298 K. From time resolved measurements of the luminescence in the afterglow following pulsed excitation, the decay rate of the green emission, in an excess of N₂, is shown to be a linear function of [Hg][N₂]. It is concluded that the reaction which controls the decay of the excitation is formation of an excited trimer in a termolecular reaction; the trimer is the carrier of the green emission: Hg₂ O^±_g + Hg(6 ¹S₀ + Hg(6¹S₀ + N₂ → Hg₃³Π_u + N₂. The rate coefficient is 1.10(±0.07) × 10^?30 cm⁶ molecule^?2 s^?1 at 298 K.     

Chromophore-radical excited state antiferromagnetic exchange controls the sign of photoinduced ground state spin polarization

A change in the sign of the ground-state electron spin polarization (ESP) is reported in complexes where an organic radical (nitronylnitroxide, NN) is covalently attached to a donor–acceptor chromophore via two different meta-phenylene bridges in (bpy)Pt(CAT-m-Ph-NN) (mPh-Pt) and (bpy)Pt(CAT-6-Me-m-Ph-NN) (6-Me-mPh-Pt) (bpy = 5,5′-di-tert-butyl-2,2′-bipyridine, CAT = 3-tert-butylcatecholate, m-Ph = meta-phenylene). These molecules represent a new class of chromophores that can be photoexcited with visible light to produce an initial exchange-coupled, 3-spin (bpy˙⁻, CAT⁺˙ = semiquinone (SQ), and NN), charge-separated doublet ²S₁ (S = chromophore excited spin singlet configuration) excited state. Following excitation, the ²S₁ state rapidly decays to the ground state by magnetic exchange-mediated enhanced internal conversion via the ²T₁ (T = chromophore excited spin triplet configuration) state. This process generates emissive ground state ESP in 6-Me-mPh-Pt while for mPh-Pt the ESP is absorptive. It is proposed that the emissive polarization in 6-Me-mPh-Pt results from zero-field splitting induced transitions between the chromophoric ²T₁ and ⁴T₁ states, whereas predominant spin–orbit induced transitions between ²T₁ and low-energy NN-based states give rise to the absorptive polarization observed for mPh-Pt. The difference in the sign of the ESP for these molecules is consistent with a smaller excited state ²T₁ – ⁴T₁ gap for 6-Me-mPh-Pt that derives from steric interactions with the 6-methyl group. These steric interactions reduce the excited state pairwise SQ-NN exchange coupling compared to that in mPh-Pt.

A change in the sign of the ground state electron spin polarization (ESP) is reported in complexes where an organic radical (nitronylnitroxide, NN) is covalently attached to a donor–acceptor chromophore via two different meta-phenylene bridges.     

Energy transfer rates for vibrationally excited gas-phase azulene in the electronic ground state

Gas-phase azulene molecules were prepared with 17200 cm^?1 vibrational energy in the S₀ state by laser excitation of the S₁ state and subsequent internal conversion. Rates of vibrational energy removal (for several collision partners) were determined from the decay of the CH-stretch fluorescence at 3.3 μm. A stepladder model indicates each azulene-azulene collision removes 3500 cm^?1 of vibrational energy.     

The ground and excited state electron affinities of cytosine and trans-azobenzene

The electron capture detector, reduction potential, electron transfer and photon methods of determining electron affinities are compared. The adiabatic electron affinities are (in eV): t-azobenzene(O₂), 1.578(5); t-azobenzene, 1.378(5); cytosine, 1.043(5) from anion photoelectron spectra. The largest or ground state value for trans-azobenzene and an excited state electron affinity for cytosine, 0.70 eV are also determined by reduction potentials. Other excited state energies are (in eV): t-azobenzene, 0.328(5), 0.589(5), 0.690(5), 0.768(5), 0.954(5), 1.038(5), 1.150(5), 1.275(5) and cytosine, 0.089(5), 0.098(5), 0.198(5), 0.235(5). The cytosine values are consistent with electron transport and radiation damage and repair in DNA.     

Investigation of excited state electron-transfer reactions. A search for other associative processes

The present investigations were carried out to reveal the nature of the photoinduced electron-transfer (ET) process within the electron donors 1,2,3,4-tetrahydroquinoline (THQ) and 1-methyl-1,2,3,4-tetrahydroquinoline (THMe), and widely used acceptor tetracyanoquinodimethane (TCNQ) in the highly polar solvent acetonitrile (ACN) at 300 K. Observations of considerable overlapping between the emission spectrum of the donor molecules studied in the present investigation and the electronic absorption spectrum of the acceptor TCNQ, coupled to a high negative value of ΔG [the energy gap between the locally excited (LE) and radical ion pair (RIP) states] when one of the chromophores is excited, indicate the possibility of concurrent occurrence of the two processes, e.g. energy and electron transfer. Surprisingly even when the donor chromophore is photoexcited, no spectral manifestation of energy transfer was observed, though both steady state and time resolved (in the time domain of nanosecond order) spectroscopic measurements strongly suggest the occurrence of a highly exothermic ET reaction within the present donor—acceptor systems. Furthermore such ET reactions have been suggested to occur between donor and acceptor separated by a large distance ( ∼ 7 Å), and quenching of fluorescence emission of donor molecules is caused primarily due to outer sphere ET reactions with the acceptor. Measured electron transfer rates (k_ET) were found to be of much lower value ( ∼ 10⁷s⁻¹). It is demonstrated that loose structure of the transient geminate ion pair complex is formed due to the encounter between excited acceptor (or donor) and unexcited donor (or acceptor), and due to this structural property, a stable anionic species (TCNQ⁻ ion) is produced due to the rapid dissociation (probably in the picosecond time domain) of this excited complex. It is hinted that synthesis of biochromophoric systems in which the present donor and acceptor chromophore would be linked by a polymethylene type (σ-type) spacer might be useful in building good photoconducting materials.     

Potential energy functions for an intramolecular proton transfer reaction in the ground and excited state

We describe the development of empirical potential functions for the study of the excited state intramolecular proton transfer reaction in 1-(trifuloroacetylamino)-naphtaquinone (TFNQ). The potential is a combination of the standard CHARMM27 force field for the backbone structure of TFNQ and an empirical valence bond formalism for the proton transfer reaction. The latter is parameterized to reproduce the potential energies both in the ground and the excited state, determined at the CASPT2 level of theory. Parameters describing intermolecular interactions are fitted to reproduce molecular dipole moments computed at the CASSCF level of theory and to reproduce ab initio hydrogen bonding energies and geometries for TFNQ-water bimolecular complexes. The utility of this potential energy function was examined by computing the potentials of mean force for the proton transfer reactions in the gas phase and in water, in both electronic states. The ground state PMF exhibits little solvent effects, whereas computed potential of mean force shows a solvent stabilization of 2.5 kcal mol⁻¹ in the product state region, suggesting proton transfer is more pronounced in polar solvents, consistent with experimental findings. Electronic Supplementary Material The online version of this article (doi:) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. Contribution to the Fernando Bernardi Memorial Issue.     

Molecular basis set generation: Accurate slater basis sets for LiH− ground and excited state and Li2− ground state

A procedure for generating basis sets for diatomic molecule electronic structure calculations is described. In essence, this procedure maps the results of nearly exact numerical Hartree–Fock calculations into basis set form. Two applications of the procedure are proposed: (a) generation of very high accuracy basis sets, and (b) investigation of basis sets for unusual systems. The latter application is illustrated by some results for diatomic anions.     

Ab initio calculation of stationary points for the ground and the first excited state of HCO

SCF and single-reference ACPF calculations were performed in order to determine the structure, stability, and harmonic vibrational frequencies of stationary points for the HCO radical in the ground (²A′) and first excited (²A″) states. Very large and flexible basis sets including two f functions on the heavy atoms and two d functions on hydrogen were used. The calculated geometries and vibrational frequencies are in good agreement with available experimental data. The relative stabilities are now also much better balanced compared to previous theoretical results. © 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Linear and convolution methods for the analysis of ground and excited state kinetics. Application to the monomer–excimer scheme

A new linear method for the determination of the rate coefficients of complex first-order (or pseudo-first-order) mechanisms is presented and applied to simulated data. The errors associated with parameter recovery are compared with those of the traditional nonlinear least-squares method. Nonlinear methods based on convolution kinetics are also developed, and general convolution equations are obtained. Special attention is paid in both cases to excited state kinetics, where concentrations are usually known only up to a constant factor. The monomer–excimer kinetics is discussed in detail, explicit relations for parameter correlation being obtained. The influence of transient effects is also quantitatively discussed.