| 1. |
- Pathak, S., et al.
(författare)
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Tracking the ultraviolet-induced photochemistry of thiophenone during and after ultrafast ring opening
- 2020
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Ingår i: Nature Chemistry. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1755-4330 .- 1755-4349. ; 12:9, s. 795-800
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Photoinduced isomerization reactions lie at the heart of many chemical processes in nature. The mechanisms of such reactions are determined by a delicate interplay of coupled electronic and nuclear dynamics occurring on the femtosecond scale, followed by the slower redistribution of energy into different vibrational degrees of freedom. Here we apply time-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy with a seeded extreme ultraviolet free-electron laser to trace the ultrafast ring opening of gas-phase thiophenone molecules following ultraviolet photoexcitation. When combined with ab initio electronic structure and molecular dynamics calculations of the excited- and ground-state molecules, the results provide insights into both the electronic and nuclear dynamics of this fundamental class of reactions. The initial ring opening and non-adiabatic coupling to the electronic ground state are shown to be driven by ballistic S-C bond extension and to be complete within 350 fs. Theory and experiment also enable visualization of the rich ground-state dynamics that involve the formation of, and interconversion between, ring-opened isomers and the cyclic structure, as well as fragmentation over much longer timescales.
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| 2. |
- Walmsley, T., et al.
(författare)
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Characterizing the multi-dimensional reaction dynamics of dihalomethanes using XUV-induced Coulomb explosion imaging
- 2023
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Ingår i: Journal of Chemical Physics. - 0021-9606. ; 159:14
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Site-selective probing of iodine 4d orbitals at 13.1 nm was used to characterize the photolysis of CH2I2 and CH2BrI initiated at 202.5 nm. Time-dependent fragment ion momenta were recorded using Coulomb explosion imaging mass spectrometry and used to determine the structural dynamics of the dissociating molecules. Correlations between these fragment momenta, as well as the onset times of electron transfer reactions between them, indicate that each molecule can undergo neutral three-body photolysis. For CH2I2, the structural evolution of the neutral molecule was simultaneously characterized along the C-I and I-C-I coordinates, demonstrating the sensitivity of these measurements to nuclear motion along multiple degrees of freedom.
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| 3. |
- Borne, Kurtis D., et al.
(författare)
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Ultrafast electronic relaxation pathways of the molecular photoswitch quadricyclane
- 2024
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Ingår i: NATURE CHEMISTRY. - : Springer Nature. - 1755-4330 .- 1755-4349. ; 16, s. 499-505
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The light-induced ultrafast switching between molecular isomers norbornadiene and quadricyclane can reversibly store and release a substantial amount of chemical energy. Prior work observed signatures of ultrafast molecular dynamics in both isomers upon ultraviolet excitation but could not follow the electronic relaxation all the way back to the ground state experimentally. Here we study the electronic relaxation of quadricyclane after exciting in the ultraviolet (201 nanometres) using time-resolved gas-phase extreme ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy combined with non-adiabatic molecular dynamics simulations. We identify two competing pathways by which electronically excited quadricyclane molecules relax to the electronic ground state. The fast pathway (<100 femtoseconds) is distinguished by effective coupling to valence electronic states, while the slow pathway involves initial motions across Rydberg states and takes several hundred femtoseconds. Both pathways facilitate interconversion between the two isomers, albeit on different timescales, and we predict that the branching ratio of norbornadiene/quadricyclane products immediately after returning to the electronic ground state is approximately 3:2.
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