Photochemistry of diphenylketyl radicals in polar solvents

Abstract

The photolysis of diphenylketyl radicals in acetonitrile leads to their photobleaching with a quantum yield of 0.10. The decay of the excited radicals occurs by four different pathways: (a) doublet-doublet fluorescence; (b) radiationless decay; (c) electron photoejection, which accounts for 20% of the observed bleaching; and (d) O-H bond cleavage leading to benzophenone, which is presumed to account for the remaining 80% of the bleaching