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Title: Investigation of organometallic reaction mechanisms with one and two dimensional vibrational spectroscopy

Thesis/Dissertation ·
DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1001071· OSTI ID:1001071
 [1]
  1. Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)

One and two dimensional time-resolved vibrational spectroscopy has been used to investigate the elementary reactions of several prototypical organometallic complexes in room temperature solution. The electron transfer and ligand substitution reactions of photogenerated 17-electron organometallic radicals CpW(CO)3 and CpFe(CO)2 have been examined with one dimensional spectroscopy on the picosecond through microsecond time-scales, revealing the importance of caging effects and odd-electron intermediates in these reactions. Similarly, an investigation of the photophysics of the simple Fischer carbene complex Cr(CO)5[CMe(OMe)] showed that this class of molecule undergoes an unusual molecular rearrangement on the picosecond time-scale, briefly forming a metal-ketene complex. Although time-resolved spectroscopy has long been used for these types of photoinitiated reactions, the advent of two dimensional vibrational spectroscopy (2D-IR) opens the possibility to examine the ultrafast dynamics of molecules under thermal equilibrium conditions. Using this method, the picosecond fluxional rearrangements of the model metal carbonyl Fe(CO)5 have been examined, revealing the mechanism, time-scale, and transition state of the fluxional reaction. The success of this experiment demonstrates that 2D-IR is a powerful technique to examine the thermally-driven, ultrafast rearrangements of organometallic molecules in solution.

Research Organization:
Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
DOE Contract Number:
AC02-05CH11231
OSTI ID:
1001071
Report Number(s):
LBNL-1344E; TRN: US201102%%311
Resource Relation:
Related Information: Designation of Academic Dissertation: Doctoral thesis; Academic Degree: PhD; Name of Academic Institution: University of California, Berkeley; Location of Academic Institution: Berkeley, CA
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English