Substituent Effect on the Photobleaching of Pyrylium Salts under Ultrashort Pulsed Illumination

Abstract

The current article presents the photobleaching properties of a group of pyrylium salts under ultrashort pulsed illumination. These pyrylium salts have the same basic chemical structure and differ only by a specific substituent. It is proven experimentally that two different mechanisms are simultaneously present to the photobleaching of all molecules studied (independently of their specific chemical structure). However, the particular parameters of each mechanism are influenced significantly by the substituent change. The experimental investigation of these parameters showed the presence of multiphoton interactions in the photobleaching of pyrylium salts depending essentially on the specific substituent.