Influence of viscosity of medium on processes of oxygen quenching of excited states of mesoporphyrin

The oxygen quenching rate constants for singlet and triplet excited states of the dimethyl ester of mesoporphyrin IX increase with decreasing viscosity of the medium and reach a maximum at a viscosity of approximately 0.4 mPa·sec, after which the rate constants begin to decrease. The drop in rate constant with increasing fluidity of the medium may be related to a nonequilibrium character of the elementary act in the interaction of the reactants in the solvent cage. In viscous media such as isopropyl alcohol, isobutyl alcohol, and isoamyl alcohol, the reaction radius is greater than the sum of the radii of the reacting particles. The long-range character of these processes is due to the relatively weak dependence of the quenching probability on distance.Translated from Teoreticheskaya i Éksperimental'naya Khimiya, Vol. 25, No. 2, pp. 161–167, March–April, 1989.