The photodecomposition mechanism of tert-butyl-9-methylfluorene-9-percarboxylate: new insight from femtosecond IR spectroscopy

The ultrafast photodissociation of tert-butyl-9-methylfluorene-9-percarboxylate (TBFC) is studied by mid-infrared transient absorption spectroscopy after UV excitation at 266 nm. By means of 13C-labeled TBFC and additional DFT calculations transient IR bands in the fingerprint region were unambiguously assigned to the methylfluorenyl radical. The experiments show that the fragmentation is controlled by the S1-lifetime of TBFC and, dependent on the solvent, within 0.8-2.1 ps leads to tert-butyloxy and methylfluorenyl radicals plus CO2 via concerted bond breakage of the O-O and the fluorenyl-C(carbonyl) bond. In accordance, the CO2 quantum yield is determined to be unity.