Photoinduced hydrogen-bonding dynamics.

Abstract

Hydrogen bonding dynamics has received extensive research attention in recent years due to the significant advances in femtolaser spectroscopy experiments and quantum chemistry calculations. Usually, photoexcitation would cause changes in the hydrogen bonding formed through the interaction between hydrogen donor and acceptor molecules on their ground electronic states, and such transient strengthening or weakening of hydrogen bonding could be crucial for the photophysical transformations and the subsequent photochemical reactions that occurred on a time scale from tens of femtosecond to a few nanoseconds. In this article, we review the combined experimental and theoretical studies focusing on the ultrafast electronic and vibrational hydrogen bonding dynamics. Through these studies, new mechanisms and proposals and common rules have been put forward to advance our understanding of the hydrogen bondings dynamics in a variety of important photoinduced phenomena like photosynthesis, dual fluorescence emission, rotational reorientation, excited-state proton transfer and charge transfer processes, chemosensor fluorescence sensing, rearrangements of the hydrogen-bond network including forming and breaking hydrogen bond in water. Graphical Abstract We review the recent advances on exploring the photoinduced hydrogen bonding dynamics in solutions through a joint approach of laser spectroscopy and theoretical calculation. The reviewed studies have put forward a new mechanism, new proposal, and new rule for a variety of photoinduced phenomena such as photosynthesis, dual fluorescence emission, rotational reorientation, excited-state proton transfer and charge transfer, chemosensor fluorescence sensing, and rearrangements of the hydrogen-bond network in water.