PHOTOCHEMISTRY OF THE PHOTOTOXIC POLYACETYLENE PHENYLHEPTATRIYNE*

Abstract— Investigation of the photochemistry of the phototoxic polyacetylene phenylheptatriyne, PHT, was undertaken to obtain further information on competing photo-oxidative type II and non-oxidative processes observed in vivo. Laser excitation (308 or 337 nm) led to the formation of a strong triplet signal with a lifetime of 28 μs in MeOH. The triplet was efficiently quenched by the triplet quencher 1,3-octadiene (k_q - 1.6 × 10⁹M^-1s^-1). Quenching by O₂ occurred with a rate constant (1.7 × 10⁹M^-1s^-1) comparable to the rate of electron transfer to methylviologen (1.4 × 10⁹M^-1 s^-1). The formation of singlet oxygen established earlier (type II reaction) in the former case and the semioxidized PHT radical in the latter case are consistent with the competing phototoxic processes observed in vivo.