Ultrafast photochemical reactions in liquids occur on similar or shorter time scales compared to the equilibration of the optically populated excited state. This equilibration involves the relaxation of intramolecular and/or solvent modes. As a consequence, the reaction dynamics are no longer exponential, cannot be quantified by rate constants, and may depend on the excitation wavelength contrary to slower photochemical processes occurring from equilibrated excited states. Such ultrafast photoinduced reactions do no longer obey the Kasha-Vavilov rule. Nonequilibrium effects are also observed in diffusion-controlled intermolecular processes directly after photoexcitation, and their proper description gives access to the intrinsic reaction dynamics that are normally hidden by diffusion. Here we discuss these topics in relation to ultrafast organic photochemical reactions in homogeneous liquids. Discussed reactions include intra- and intermolecular electron- and proton-transfer processes, as well as photochromic reactions occurring with and without bond breaking or bond formation, namely ring-opening reactions and cis-trans isomerizations, respectively.

Varying the structure of perylene-based dimers allows tuning the excited state from an excimer to a charge-separated state.

Efficient electronic energy transfer (EET) in the newly synthesized dyads comprised of zinc porphyrin covalently linked to one, two or four numbers of boron dipyrrin (BDP) entities is investigated. Both steady-state and time-resolved emission as well as transient absorption studies revealed occurrence of efficient singlet-singlet energy transfer from BDP to zinc porphyrin with the time scale ranging between 28 and 48 ps. A decrease in time constants for energy transfer with increasing the number of BDP units is observed revealing better antenna effect of dyads bearing higher number of boron dipyrrin entities. Further, supramolecular triads to mimic the 'antenna-reaction center' functionality of photosynthetic reaction center have been successfully constructed by coordinating fulleropyrrolidine appended with an imidazole ligand to the zinc porphyrin. The structural integrity of the supramolecular triads was arrived by optical, computational and electrochemical studies. Free energy calculations revealed possibility of photoinduced electron transfer from singlet excited zinc porphyrin to fullerene, and the preliminary transient absorption studies involving pump-probe technique are supportive of occurrence of electron transfer from (1)ZnP* to fullerene in the supramolecular triads.

A thorough understanding of the microscopic mechanism of excited-state proton transfer (ESPT) and the influence of the solvent environment on its dynamics are of great fundamental interest. We present here a detailed investigation of an ESPT to solvent (DMSO) using time-resolved broadband fluorescence and transient absorption spectroscopies. All excited-state species are resolved spectrally and kinetically using a global target analysis based on the two-step Eigen-Weller model. Reversibility of the initial short-range proton transfer producing excited contact ion pairs (CIP*) is observed unambiguously in fluorescence and must be explicitly considered to obtain the individual rate constants. Close inspection of the early dynamics suggests that the relative populations of the protonated form (ROH*) and CIP* are governed by solvent relaxation that influences the relative energies of the excited states. This constitutes a breakdown of the Eigen-Weller model, although the overall agreement between the data and the analysis using classical rate equations is excellent.

Synthesis and characterization of three phthalocyanine-fullerene (Pc-C(60)) dyads, corresponding monoisomeric phthalocyanines (Pc), and building blocks, phthalonitriles, are described. Six novel bisaryl phthalonitriles were prepared by the Suzuki-Miyaura coupling reaction from trifluoromethanesulfonic acid 2,3-dicyanophenyl ester and various oxaborolanes. Two phthalonitriles were selected for the synthesis of A(3)B- and A(2)B(2)-type phthalocyanines. Phthalonitrile 4 has a bulky 3,5-di-tert-butylphenyl substituent at the alpha-phthalo position, which forces only one regioisomer to form and greatly increases the solubility of phthalocyanine. Phthalonitrile 8 has a 3-phenylpropanol side chain at the alpha-position making further modifications of the side group possible. Synthesized monoisomeric A(3)B- and A(2)B(2)-type phthalocyanines are modified by attachment of malonic residues. Finally, fullerene is covalently linked to phthalocyanine with one or two malonic bridges to produce Pc-C(60) dyads. Due to the monoisomeric structure and increased solubility of phthalocyanines, the quality of NMR spectra of the compounds is enhanced significantly, making detailed NMR analysis of the structures possible. The synthesized dyads have different orientations of phthalocyanine and fullerene, which strongly influence the electron transfer (ET) from phthalocyanine to fullerene moiety. Fluorescence quenchings of the dyads were measured in both polar and nonpolar solvents, and in all cases, the quenching was more efficient in the polar environment. As expected, most efficient fluorescence quenching was observed for dyad 20b, with two linkers and phthalocyanine and fullerene in face-to-face orientation.

Photoinduced electron transfer (ET) in films of the double-linked free-base phthalocyanine-fullerene dyads (Pc-C 60 ) was studied in solid Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) films using femtosecond pump-probe and microsecond flash-photolysis methods. Excitation of the phthalocyanine (Pc) moiety of the dyad results in a rapid (0.8 ps) intramolecular ET from phthalocyanine to fullerene. The formed charge separated (CS) state relaxes in 35 ps, yielding an intermolecular CS state, which relaxes to the ground state in the microsecond time domain. The surface organization of the Pc-C 60 dyad monolayers was studied by atomic force microscopy for both pure Pc-C 60 films and Pc-C 60 mixed films with matrix molecules, octadecylamine (ODA). This study together with the estimations done based on surface pressure-mean molecular area isotherms reveals that the dyads tend to aggregate rather than form a homogeneous mixture with the ODA molecules. This enforces intermolecular interactions and leads to the formation of a long-lived intermolecular CS state.

Complex formation and intermolecular excited-state proton transfer (ESPT) between a dihydroxy-1,8-naphthalimide photoacid and organic bases are investigated in polar aprotic solvents. First, quantum chemical calculations are used to explore the acid-base and spectroscopic properties and to identify energetically favorable complexes. The two hydroxyl groups of the photoacid enable stepwise formation of 1 : 1 and 1 : 2 complexes. Weak bases exhibit only hydrogen-bonding interactions whereas strong bases are able to deprotonate one of the hydroxyl groups resulting in strong negative cooperativity (K1≫ 4K2) in the formation of the 1 : 2 complex. Time-resolved fluorescence studies of the complexes provide strong indications of a three-step dissociation process. The species involved in the model are: a hydrogen-bonded complex, a hydrogen-bonded ion pair, a solvent separated ion pair, and a free ion pair.

Singlet-singlet energy transfer in self-assembled via axial coordination of imidazole-appended (at different positions of one of the meso-phenyl entities) free-base tetraphenylporphyrin, H(2)PIm, to either zinc phthalocyanine, ZnPc, or zinc naphthalocyanine, ZnNc, dyads is investigated in noncoordinating solvents, o-dichlorobenzene and toluene, using both steady-state and time-resolved transient absorption techniques. The newly formed supramolecular dyads were fully characterized by spectroscopic, computational, and electrochemical methods. The binding constants measured from optical absorption spectral data were found to be in the range of 10(4)-10(5) M(-1) for the 1:1 dyads, suggesting fairly stable complex formation. Electrochemical and computational studies suggested that photoinduced electron transfer is a thermodynamically unfavorable process when free-base porphyrin is excited in these dyads. Selective excitation of the donor free-base porphyrin entity was possible in both types of dyads formed by either of the ZnPc or ZnNc energy acceptors. Efficient singlet-singlet energy transfer was observed in these dyads, and the position of imidazole linkage on the free-base porphyrin entity, although flexible, seems to have some control over the overall efficiency of excited energy transfer process. Kinetics of energy transfer was monitored by performing transient absorption measurements using both up-conversion and pump-probe techniques. Such studies revealed ultrafast singlet-singlet energy transfer in the studied dyads with time constants on the order of 2-25 ps depending upon the type of the dyad.