Electronic Relaxation Pathways Research Articles

Direct Observation of Triplet-State Population Dynamics in the RNA Uracil Derivative 1-Cyclohexyluracil.

Investigation of the excited-state dynamics in nucleic acid monomers is an area of active research due to the crucial role these early events play in DNA and RNA photodamage. The dynamics and rate at which the triplet state is populated are key mechanistic pathways yet to be fully elucidated. Direct spectroscopic evidence is presented in this contribution for intersystem crossing dynamics in a uracil derivative, 1-cyclohexyluracil. It is shown that intersystem crossing to the triplet manifold occurs in one picosecond or less in acetonitrile solution-at least an order of magnitude faster than previously estimated experimentally. Broadband transient absorption measurements also reveal the primary electronic relaxation pathways of the uracil chromophore, including the absorption spectra of the (1)ππ*, (1)nπ*, and (3)ππ* states and the rates of vibrational cooling in the ground and (3)ππ* states. The experimental results are supported by density functional calculations.

Electron Transfer Kinetics in CdS Nanorod–[FeFe]-Hydrogenase Complexes and Implications for Photochemical H2 Generation

This Article describes the electron transfer (ET) kinetics in complexes of CdS nanorods (CdS NRs) and [FeFe]-hydrogenase I from Clostridium acetobutylicum (CaI). In the presence of an electron donor, these complexes produce H2 photochemically with quantum yields of up to 20%. Kinetics of ET from CdS NRs to CaI play a critical role in the overall photochemical reactivity, as the quantum efficiency of ET defines the upper limit on the quantum yield of H2 generation. We investigated the competitiveness of ET with the electron relaxation pathways in CdS NRs by directly measuring the rate and quantum efficiency of ET from photoexcited CdS NRs to CaI using transient absorption spectroscopy. This technique is uniquely suited to decouple CdS→CaI ET from the processes occurring in the enzyme during H2 production. We found that the ET rate constant (k(ET)) and the electron relaxation rate constant in CdS NRs (k(CdS)) were comparable, with values of 10(7) s(-1), resulting in a quantum efficiency of ET of 42% for complexes with the average CaI:CdS NR molar ratio of 1:1. Given the direct competition between the two processes that occur with similar rates, we propose that gains in efficiencies of H2 production could be achieved by increasing k(ET) and/or decreasing k(CdS) through structural modifications of the nanocrystals. When catalytically inactive forms of CaI were used in CdS-CaI complexes, ET behavior was akin to that observed with active CaI, demonstrating that electron injection occurs at a distal iron-sulfur cluster and is followed by transport through a series of accessory iron-sulfur clusters to the active site of CaI. Using insights from this time-resolved spectroscopic study, we discuss the intricate kinetic pathways involved in photochemical H2 generation in CdS-CaI complexes, and we examine how the relationship between the electron injection rate and the other kinetic processes relates to the overall H2 production efficiency.

Capturing interfacial photoelectrochemical dynamics with picosecond time-resolved X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy.

Time-resolved core-level spectroscopy using laser pulses to initiate and short X-ray pulses to trace photoinduced processes has the unique potential to provide electronic state- and atomic site-specific insight into fundamental electron dynamics in complex systems. Time-domain studies using transient X-ray absorption and emission techniques have proven extremely valuable to investigate electronic and structural dynamics in isolated and solvated molecules. Here, we describe the implementation of a picosecond time-resolved X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (TRXPS) technique at the Advanced Light Source (ALS) and its application to monitor photoinduced electron dynamics at the technologically pertinent interface formed by N3 dye molecules anchored to nanoporous ZnO. Indications for a dynamical chemical shift of the Ru3d photoemission line originating from the N3 metal centre are observed ∼30 ps after resonant HOMO-LUMO excitation with a visible laser pump pulse. The transient changes in the TRXPS spectra are accompanied by a characteristic surface photovoltage (SPV) response of the ZnO substrate on a pico- to nanosecond time scale. The interplay between the two phenomena is discussed in the context of possible electronic relaxation and recombination pathways that lead to the neutralisation of the transiently oxidised dye after ultrafast electron injection. A detailed account of the experimental technique is given including an analysis of the chemical modification of the nano-structured ZnO substrate during extended periods of solution-based dye sensitisation and its relevance for studies using surface-sensitive spectroscopy techniques.

Electronic Spectroscopy of PAHs

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons are a class of molecules of broad interest that has long been explored by various spectroscopic techniques. The electronic spectroscopy of these species is of particular interest since it provides a framework for the understanding of the electronic structure of large polyatomic molecules. Such studies also allow the systematic investigation of electronic relaxation mechanisms in large molecules. In this review, we focus on the gas-phase experimental work on such systems and present the latest progress. We also underline the challenges that remain to be tackled. A focus on the understanding of the electronic relaxation pathways at work in gas-phase PAHs will also be presented, as well as their possible manifestation in space.

Wavelength Dependence of Electronic Relaxation in Isolated Adenine Using UV Femtosecond Time-Resolved Photoelectron Spectroscopy

Electronic relaxation pathways in photoexcited nucleobases have received much theoretical and experimental attention due to their underlying importance to the UV photostability of these biomolecules. Multiple mechanisms with different energetic onsets have been proposed by ab initio calculations yet the majority of experiments to date have only probed the photophysics at a few selected excitation energies. We present femtosecond time-resolved photoelectron spectra (TRPES) of the DNA base adenine in a molecular beam at multiple excitation energies between 4.7-6.2 eV. The two-dimensional TRPES data is fit globally to extract lifetimes and decay associated spectra for unambiguous identification of states participating in the relaxation. Furthermore, the corresponding amplitude ratios are indicative of the relative importance of competing pathways. We adopt the following mechanism for the electronic relaxation of isolated adenine; initially the S(2)(ππ*) state is populated by all excitation wavelengths and decays quickly within 100 fs. For excitation energies below ∼5.2 eV, the S(2)(ππ*)→S(1)(nπ*)→S(0) pathway dominates the deactivation process. The S(1)(nπ*)→S(0) lifetime (1032-700 fs) displays a trend toward shorter time constants with increasing excitation energy. On the basis of relative amplitude ratios, an additional relaxation channel is identified at excitation energies above 5.2 eV.

Triplet States and Electronic Relaxation in Photoexcited Graphene Quantum Dots

Electronic relaxation in photoexcited graphenes is central to their photoreactivity and their optoelectrical applications such as photodetectors and solar cells. Herein we report on the first ensemble studies of electronic energy relaxation pathways in colloidal graphene quantum dots with uniform size. We show that the photoexcited graphene quantum dots have a significant probability of relaxing into triplet states and emit both phosphorescence and fluorescence at room temperature, with relative intensities depending on the excitation energy. Because of the long lifetime and reactivity of triplet electronic states, our results could have significant implications for applications of graphenes.

Fluorescence Anisotropy of Branched Molecules Containing 1-Aminopyrene Chromophores

Fluorescence anisotropy measurements were performed on a set of multichromophoric compounds, which contain a different number of aminopyrenyl moieties linked to a triazine ring, in order to reveal the nature of both the electronic excited states and relaxation pathways of the compounds. Our experimental results complement quantum chemical calculations. We propose that the lowest excited state from which fluorescence proceeds is localized on a single individual aminopyrene moiety. In contrast, excitation to a higher excited state is likely followed by a migration of energy to another nearby aminopyrene chromophore before the internal conversion to the emitting state takes place. We suggest that this migration is responsible for the experimentally measured decrease of fluorescence anisotropy of the studied compounds.

First observation in the gas phase of the ultrafast electronic relaxation pathways of the S2 states of heme and hemin

The time evolution of electronically excited heme (iron II protoporphyrin IX, [Fe(II) PP]) and its associated salt hemin (iron III protoporphyrin IX chloride, [Fe(III) PP-Cl]), has been investigated for the first time in the gas phase by femtosecond pump-probe spectroscopy. The porphyrins were excited at 400 nm in the S(2) state (Soret band) and their relaxation dynamics was probed by multiphoton ionization at 800 nm. This time evolution was compared with that of the excited state of zinc protoporphyrin IX [Zn PP] whose S(2) excited state likely decays to the long lived S(1) state through a conical intersection, in less than 100 fs. Instead, for [Fe(II) PP] and [Fe(III) PP-Cl], the key relaxation step from S(2) is interpreted as an ultrafast charge transfer from the porphyrin excited orbital π* to a vacant d orbital on the iron atom (ligand to metal charge transfer, LMCT). This intermediate LMCT state then relaxes to the ground state within 250 fs. Through this work a new, serendipitous, preparation step was found for Fe(II) porphyrins, in the gas phase.

On the origin of ultrafast nonradiative transitions in nitro-polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons: Excited-state dynamics in 1-nitronaphthalene

The electronic energy relaxation of 1-nitronaphthalene was studied in nonpolar, aprotic, and protic solvents in the time window from femtoseconds to microseconds. Excitation at 340 or 360 nm populates the Franck-Condon S(1)(pipi( *)) state, which is proposed to bifurcate into two essentially barrierless nonradiative decay channels with sub-200 fs lifetimes. The first main decay channel connects the S(1) state with a receiver T(n) state that has considerable npi( *) character. The receiver T(n) state undergoes internal conversion to populate the vibrationally excited T(1)(pipi( *)) state in 2-4 ps. It is shown that vibrational cooling dynamics in the T(1) state depends on the solvent used, with average lifetimes in the range from 6 to 12 ps. Furthermore, solvation dynamics competes effectively with vibrational cooling in the triplet manifold in primary alcohols. The relaxed T(1) state undergoes intersystem crossing back to the ground state within a few microseconds in N(2)-saturated solutions in all the solvents studied. The second minor channel involves conformational relaxation of the bright S(1) state (primarily rotation of the NO(2)-group) to populate a dissociative singlet state with significant charge-transfer character and negligible oscillator strength. This dissociative channel is proposed to be responsible for the observed photochemistry in 1-nitronaphthalene. Ground- and excited-state calculations at the density functional level of theory that include bulk and explicit solvent effects lend support to the proposed mechanism where the fluorescent S(1) state decays rapidly and irreversibly to dark excited states. A four-state kinetic model is proposed that satisfactorily explains the origin of the nonradiative electronic relaxation pathways in 1-nitronaphthalene.

Electronic Spectroscopy and Ultrafast Energy Relaxation Pathways in the Lowest Rydberg States of Trimethylamine

Resonance-enhanced multiphoton ionization photoelectron spectroscopy has been applied to study the electronic spectroscopy and relaxation pathways among the 3p and 3s Rydberg states of trimethylamine. The experiments used femtosecond and picosecond duration laser pulses at wavelengths of 416, 266, and 208 nm and employed two-photon and three-photon ionization schemes. The binding energy of the 3s Rydberg state was found to be 3.087 +/- 0.005 eV. The degenerate 3p x, y states have binding energies of 2.251 +/- 0.005 eV, and 3p z is at 2.204 +/- 0.005 eV. Using picosecond and femtosecond time-resolved experiments we spectrally and temporally resolved an intricate sequence of energy relaxation pathways leading from the 3p states to the 3s state. With excitation at 5.96 eV, trimethylamine is found to decay from the 3p z state to 3p x, y in 539 fs. The decay to 3s from all the 3p states takes place with a 2.9 ps time constant. On these time scales, trimethylamine does not fragment at the given internal energies, which range from 0.42 to 1.54 eV depending on the excitation wavelength and electronic state.

Solvation Oscillations and Excited-State Dynamics of 2-Amino- and 2-Hydroxy-7-nitrofluorene and Its 2‘-deoxyriboside

Push-pull substituted fluorenes are considered for use as dynamic solvation probes in polynucleotides. Their fluorescence band is predicted (by simulations) to show weak spectral oscillations on the subpicosecond time scale depending on the nucleotide sequence. The oscillations reflect the local far-infrared spectrum of the environment around the probe molecule. A connection is provided by the continuum theory of polar solvation which, however, neglects molecular aspects. We examine the latter using acetonitrile solution as a test case. A collective librational solvent mode at 100 cm(-1) is observed with 2-amino-7-nitrofluorene, 2-dimethylamino-7-nitrofluorene, 2-hydroxy-7-nitrofluorene, and its 2'-deoxyriboside. Different strengths of the oscillation indicate that rotational friction of nearby acetonitrile molecules depends on the solute structure or that H bonding is involved in launching the librational coherence. Polar solvation in methanol is used for comparison. With hydroxynitrofluorenes, the observation window is limited by intersystem crossing for which rates are reported. A prominent excited-state absorption band of nitrofluorenes at 430 nm can be used to monitor polar solvation. Structural and electronic relaxation pathways are discussed with the help of quantum chemical calculations.

Unified picture of electron and hole relaxation pathways in semiconductor quantum dots

Size dependent electron and hole relaxation dynamics were measured in colloidal CdSe quantum dots with state-to-state specificity. These experiments reveal the electron and hole state-to-state relaxation dynamics with a precision of $\ensuremath{\sim}10\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{fs}$, allowing quantitative evaluation of the manifold of pathways by which an exciton relaxes in strongly confined quantum dots. These experiments corroborate previously observed confinement induced femtosecond Auger relaxation channels for electrons, but with sufficient precision to quantitatively and unambiguously determine the size dependence of the Auger mechanism. These experiments also show that the hole energy loss rate increases for smaller quantum dots, contradicting known relaxation mechanisms for holes. We propose a confinement enhanced mechanism for hole relaxation in colloidal quantum dots, overcoming the predicted phonon bottleneck for holes. The relative contributions of the relaxation pathways are identified for electrons and for holes. These state selective experiments produce a unified picture of the manifold of relaxation pathways available to both electrons and holes in strongly confined colloidal quantum dots.

Ultrafast Dynamics of Porphyrins in the Condensed Phase: I. Free Base Tetraphenylporphyrin

With femtosecond resolution, using fluorescence up-conversion and transient absorption, we have carried out measurements on free base tetraphenylporphyrin (H_2TPP) in benzene solution, pumping with ∼1300 cm^(-1) of excess vibrational energy in each of the Soret, Q_y, and Q_x bands, and also pumping the lowest vibrational band of Q_y. From these studies, made for different excitations and at different detection wavelengths, we provide a model for describing the elementary intramolecular processes in the Soret, Q_y, and Q_x electronic manifolds, with the following order of time scales and couplings: electronic (femtosecond), vibrational (femtosecond−picosecond), and singlet−triplet (nanosecond). These dynamical electronic and vibrational relaxation pathways in a molecule with small dipole in nonpolar solvents can be studied without interference from solvent reorganization, as indicated by the small Stokes shift of fluorescence. Vibrationally excited Soret → {Q_y,Q_x} and Q_y → Q_x electronic relaxation occurs in less than 100 fs, within our resolution, as evidenced by the immediate rise of Q_x fluorescence after Soret (397 nm) and Q_y (514 and 550 nm) excitation. There are generally three distinguishable ultrafast relaxation time scales within the Q_x state, which are assigned to intra- and intermolecular vibrational relaxation processes leading to thermal equilibrium in Q_x, the lowest excited singlet state. The measured time scales are as follows: 100−200 fs for intramolecular vibrational energy redistribution, 1.4 ps for vibrational redistribution caused by elastic collision with solvent molecules, and 10−20 ps for thermal equilibration by energy exchange with the solvent. Decay of the equilibrated Q_x population occurs on the nanosecond time scale by intersystem crossing to the triplet state.

Solvent Dependence of Electronic Relaxation in All-trans Retinal Studied by One- and Two-Photon Induced Transient Absorption

One- and two-photon excited ultrafast transient absorption measurements are reported for all-trans retinal in polar, nonpolar, and hydrogen-bonding solvents. A comparison of the response following one- and two-photon excitation allows assignment of the observed decays to the 1Bu+-like and 1Ag--like excited states. In the polar, hydrogen-bonding solvent ethanol, the transient absorption changes following one-photon excitation are dominated by a 2-ps response observed both in the decay of transient absorption and in the decay of stimulated emission observed in the region from 600 to 750 nm. Because of the strong stimulated emission gain, this response can be assigned to decay of the strongly optically allowed “1Bu+” state. With two-photon excitation of all-trans retinal in ethanol, a 200−300 fs decay component appears as well and is assigned to decay of the “1Ag-” state, which has a large two-photon cross section. In contrast, for all-trans retinal in hexane, both 200−300 fs and 2-ps decay components are observed following one-photon excitation, and no stimulated emission is detected. A comparison of one- and two-photon induced transient absorption leads to an assignment of the decay events. The ultrafast responses of all-trans retinal in the polar, aprotic solvents acetonitrile and propionitrile are found to be similar to the response in ethanol, indicating that protic solvents act through solvent polarity rather than a specific effect of hydrogen bonding. The effect of hydrogen bonding was studied further for all-trans retinal in mixed solvents with varying concentrations of trifluoroacetic acid, a strong hydrogen-bond donor, in hexane. As the ratio of trifluoroacetic acid to retinal increased from 1:5 to 10:1, the ultrafast response changed smoothly from “hexane-like” to “ethanol-like”, with an increasingly strong stimulated emission component having a 2-ps decay, in agreement with the increased fluorescence quantum yield observed in polar and hydrogen-bonding solvents. A model is proposed incorporating two populations of retinal having different electronic relaxation pathways to explain the solvent-dependent photophysics of all-trans retinal.

Electron and hole relaxation pathways in semiconductor quantum dots

Femtosecond (fs) broad-band transient absorption (TA) is used to study the intraband relaxation and depopulation dynamics of electron and hole quantized states in CdSe nanocrystals (NC's) with a range of surface properties. Instead of the drastic reduction in the energy relaxation rate expected due to a ``phonon bottleneck,'' we observe a fast subpicosecond $1P$-to-$1S$ electron relaxation, with the rate exceeding that due to phonon emission in bulk semiconductors. The energy relaxation is enhanced with reducing the NC's radius, and does not show any dependence on the NC surface properties (quality of the surface passivation). These data indicate that electron energy relaxation occurs by neither multiphonon emission nor by coupling to surface defects, but is likely meditated by Auger-type electron-hole energy transfer. We use fs infrared TA to probe electron and hole intraband transitions, which allows us to distinguish between electron and hole relaxation pathways leading to the depopulation of NC quantized states. In contrast to the electron relaxation, which is controlled by NC surface passivation, the depopulation of hole quantized states is extremely fast (sub-ps-to-ps time scales) in all types of samples, independent of NC surface treatment (including NC's overcoated with a ZnS layer). Our results indicate that ultrafast hole dynamics are not due to trapping at localized surface defects such as a vacancy, but rather arise from relaxation into intrinsic NC states or intrinsically unpassivated interface states.

2‐(2‐Pyridinyl)‐1‐(3‐Pyridinyl)‐Ethanone – Photoinduced Proton Transfer and Isomerisation

AbstractBased on experimental evidence from UV‐absorption and emission, transient UV‐absorption (laser flash photolysis), and light induced changes in NMR‐spectra, the electronic relaxation pathways of 2‐(2‐pyridinyl)‐1‐(3‐pyridinyl)‐ethanone are discussed, including proton transfer and isomerisation in both the excited state and the ground state. It is found that the relaxation mechanism is dependent on the solvent properties.