The photodynamic properties of molecules determine their ability to survive in harsh radiation environments. As such, the photostability of heterocyclic aromatic compounds to electromagnetic radiation is expected to have been one of the selection pressures influencing the prebiotic chemistry on early Earth. In the present study, the gas-phase photodynamics of uracil, 5-methyluracil (thymine) and 2-thiouracil-three heterocyclic compounds thought to be present during this era-are assessed in the context of their recently proposed intersystem crossing pathways that compete with internal conversion to the ground state. Specifically, time-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy measurements evidence femtosecond to picosecond timescales for relaxation of the singlet (1)ππ* and (1)nπ* states as well as for intersystem crossing to the triplet manifold. Trapping in the excited triplet state and intersystem crossing back to the ground state are investigated as potential factors contributing to the susceptibility of these molecules to ultraviolet photodamage.

Single-atom substitution within a natural nucleobase-such as replacing oxygen by sulfur in uracil-can result in drastic changes in the relaxation dynamics after UV excitation. While the photodynamics of natural nucleobases like uracil are dominated by pathways along singlet excited states, the photodynamics of thiobases like 2-thiouracil populate the triplet manifold with near unity quantum yield. In the present study, a synergistic approach based on time-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy (TRPES), time-resolved absorption spectroscopy (TRAS), and ab initio computations has been particularly successful at unraveling the underlying photophysical principles and describing the dissimilarities between the natural and substituted nucleobases. Specifically, we find that varying the excitation wavelength leads to differences between gas-phase and condensed-phase experimental results. Systematic trends are observed in the intersystem crossing time constants with varying excitation wavelength, which can be readily interpreted in the context of ab initio calculations performed both in vacuum and including solvent effects. Thus, the combination of TRPES and TRAS experiments with high-level computational techniques allows us to characterize the topology of the potential energy surfaces defining the relaxation dynamics of 2-thiouracil in both gas and condensed phases, as well as investigate the accessibility of conical intersections and crossings, and potential energy barriers along the associated relaxation coordinates.