Previous studies have established that the major pathway for the first singlet excited state of 1-nitronaphthalene is intersystem crossing to the triplet manifold. In this contribution we present determinations of the decay of the S1 state of this compound in several solvents to establish the time scale of the multiplicity change as a function of the polarity and hydrogen-bonding ability of the solvent environment. The measurements were made with the femtosecond frequency up-conversion technique to follow the weak spontaneous molecular emission which precedes triplet formation. Our results show that in all environments the S1 lifetime is 100 fs or less, making 1-nitronaphthalene the organic compound with the fastest multiplicity change ever measured. We also show that the bathochromic shifts observed for the first absorption band imply changes in the relative energies of the singlet and triplet manifolds, which in turn manifest in a 2-fold increase of the fluorescence lifetime in cyclohexane compared with the polar solvents. Additionally, we performed excited-state calculations at the TD-DFT/ PBE0/6-311++G(d,p) level of theory with the PCM model for solvation. The TD-DFT theory identifies the presence of upper triplet states which can act as receiver states in this highly efficient photophysical pathway. Together, the experimental and theoretical results show that the dynamics of the S1 state in 1-nitronaphthalene represent an extreme manifestation of El-Sayed's rules due to a partial (n-pi*) character in the receiver triplets which are nearly isoenergetic with S1, determining a change in the molecular spin state within 100 fs.

Previous phosphorescence and triplet quantum yield determinations indicate that the primary photophysical channel for 1-nitronaphthalene is the formation of its lowest energy triplet state. Also, previous direct measurements of the decay of the fluorescence from this compound indicated that the crossing between the singlet and triplet manifolds is ultrafast (sub-100 fs). In this contribution we present a sub-picosecond transient absorption study of the relaxation of photoexcited 1-nitronaphthalene in methanol and other solvents. Our measurements reveal the time scale in which the fully relaxed T(1) state is formed. We have observed that the spectral evolution associated with this process takes place in time scales from one to a few tens of picoseconds. Specifically, the appearance of the absorption spectrum of T(1) in the visible region is accompanied by the decay of transient signals at wavelengths below 400 nm. Since the fluorescence lifetime of this compound is sub-100 fs, we assigned the picoseconds decaying signals below 400 nm to an intermediate triplet state which acts as a receiver state in the intersystem crossing step and from which the T(1) population accumulates. From the details of the spectral evolution and the effects of different solvents, we also conclude that T(1) formation and vibrational cooling within this state occur in similar time scales of between 1 and 16 ps. Mainly, our results provide direct evidence in support of the participation of an upper triplet state in the mechanism for intersystem crossing in this molecule. This is considered to be common in the photophysics of several nitrated polycyclic aromatic compounds and the most determinant feature of their primary photochemistry.

Although the late (t>1 ps) photoisomerization steps in Schiff bases have been described in good detail, some aspects of the ultrafast (sub-100 fs) proton transfer process, including the possible existence of an energy barrier, still require experimental assessment. In this contribution we present femtosecond fluorescence up-conversion studies to characterize the excited state enol to cis-keto tautomerization through measurements of the transient molecular emission. Salicylideneaniline and salicylidene-1-naphthylamine were examined in acetonitrile solutions. We have resolved sub-100 fs and sub-0.5 ps emission components which are attributed to the decay of the locally excited enol form and to vibrationally excited states as they transit to the relaxed cis-keto species in the first electronically excited state. From the early spectral evolution, the lack of a deuterium isotope effect, and the kinetics measured with different amounts of excess vibrational energy, it is concluded that the intramolecular proton transfer in the S1 surface occurs as a barrierless process where the initial wave packet evolves in a repulsive potential toward the cis-keto form in a time scale of about 50 fs. The absence of an energy barrier suggests the participation of normal modes which modulate the donor to acceptor distance, thus reducing the potential energy during the intramolecular proton transfer.

We present a study of the dynamics following photoexcitation in the first electronic band of NO(2)-para-substituted nitronaphthalenes. Our main goal was to determine the interplay between the nitro group, electron-donating substituents, and the solvent in defining the relative excited-state energies and their photoinduced pathways. We studied 4-nitro-1-naphthylamine and 1-methoxy-4-nitronaphthalene in solution samples through femtosecond fluorescence up-conversion and transient absorption techniques. In all solvents, both compounds have ultrafast fluorescence decays, showing that, similarly to the parent compound 1-nitronaphthalene, these molecules have highly efficient S(1) decay channels. The evolution of the transient absorption signals in the visible region reveals that for the methoxy-substituted compound, independently of solvent polarity, the photophysical pathways are the same as in 1-nitronaphthalene, namely, ultrafast intersystem crossing to an upper triplet state (receiver T(n) state) followed by relaxation into the lowest energy phosphorescent triplet T(1). In contrast, for the amino-substituted nitronaphthalene, the excited-state evolution shows a strong solvent dependence: In nonpolar solvents, the same type of intersystem crossing through an upper receiver triplet state dictates the photochemistry. However, in methanol, where the first singlet excited state shows an important solvent-induced stabilization, we observed typical signals of the repopulation of the electronic ground state in the time scale of less than 1 ps followed by vibrational cooling within S(0). Excited-state calculations at the time-dependent density functional level with the PBE0 functional give an approximate characterization of the states involved and appear to correlate well with the experimental results as they show that the S(1) state of the amino compound is stabilized with respect to upper triplet states only in the polar solvent. These findings sustain and illustrate the recent view that the intersystem crossing channel so prevalent in nitroaromatic compounds is related to an energy coincidence between the pi-pi* first singlet excited state and upper triplet states with n-pi* character. Our results indicate through direct observations that if the S(1) state is sufficiently stabilized, other rapid decay channels like internal conversion to the ground state will minimize the transfer of population to the triplet manifold.

Schiff bases bearing an intramolecular hydrogen bond are known to undergo excited-state intramolecular proton transfer and E-Z isomerization, which are related to their thermochromism and solvatochromism properties. In this study, we explored these ultrafast photoinduced processes for two doubly hydroxylated Schiff bases, salicylidene-2-aminophenol and 2-hydroxynaphthylmethylidene-2-aminophenol. From comparisons with our previously reported results for the parent monohidroxylated Schiff base salicylideneaniline, we were able to establish the lack of an effect of a second intramolecular hydrogen bond in the excited-state intramolecular proton-transfer process. Moreover, we synthesized and studied the photophysics of 14 diphenyl-tin(IV) derivatives with Schiff bases with the same framework as the former two. In these organometallic compounds, we observed an increase of more than 50 times in the excited-state decay times in comparison with those of the free ligands. This finding is attributed to the coordination with the metallic center, which restricts the fluctuations of the geometry of the organic Schiff base skeleton. The emission bands of these complexes can be easily tuned through substitutions at the Schiff base ligand and can be made to be centered well above 600 nm. The much enhanced emissive behavior of all diphenyl-tin(IV) derivatives allowed the study of several properties of their electronically excited states, including the effects of different substituents on their femtosecond and picosecond dynamics. Considering potential applications, we also performed transient absorption experiments to assess the wavelength interval for stimulated emission of this type of compound. Finally, we determined their two-photon absorption cross sections in the 760-820-nm range by measuring their two-photon induced fluorescence excitation spectra. Mainly, our results illustrate that the diphenyl-tin(IV) moiety, thanks to its size and its coordination mode with a single Schiff base, can be coordinated to this versatile framework to obtain tunable optical properties wherein the emissive states can have lifetimes on the nanosecond time scale.