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Ultrafast Intersystem Crossing in Acetylacetone via Femtosecond X‑ray Transient Absorption at the Carbon K‑Edge
Journal article

Ultrafast Intersystem Crossing in Acetylacetone via Femtosecond X‑ray Transient Absorption at the Carbon K‑Edge

Aditi Bhattacherjee, Chaitanya Das Pemmaraju, Kirsten Schnorr, Andrew R Attar and Stephen R Leone
Journal of the American Chemical Society, Vol.139(46), pp.16576-16583
11/22/2017
DOI: 10.1021/jacs.7b07532
PMID: 29083165
url
https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1463399View
Open Access

Abstract

Molecular triplet states constitute a crucial gateway in the photochemical reactions of organic molecules by serving as a reservoir for the excess electronic energy. Here, we report the remarkable sensitivity of soft X-ray transient absorption spectroscopy for following the intricate electronic structure changes accompanying the non-adiabatic transition of an excited molecule from the singlet to the triplet manifold. Core-level X-ray spectroscopy at the carbon-1s K-edge (284 eV) is applied to identify the role of the triplet state (T1, 3ππ*) in the ultraviolet-induced photochemistry of pentane-2,4-dione (acetyl­acetone, AcAc). The excited-state dynamics initiated at 266 nm (1ππ*, S2) is investigated with element- and site-specificity using broadband soft X-ray pulses produced by high harmonic generation, in combination with time-dependent density functional theory calculations of the X-ray spectra for the excited electronic singlet and triplet states. The evolution of the core-to-valence resonances at the carbon K-edge establishes an ultrafast population of the T1 state (3ππ*) in AcAc via intersystem crossing on a 1.5 ± 0.2 ps time scale.

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