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

Journal Article · · Journal of the American Chemical Society
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.7b07532· OSTI ID:1463399
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [4]; ORCiD logo [3]
  1. Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Univ. of Bristol, Bristol (United Kingdom)
  2. SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States)
  3. Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
  4. Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); MIT Lincoln Lab., Lexington, MA (United States)

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.

Research Organization:
SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-76SF00515; AC02-05CH11231
OSTI ID:
1463399
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1532275
Journal Information:
Journal of the American Chemical Society, Vol. 139, Issue 46; ISSN 0002-7863
Publisher:
American Chemical Society (ACS)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 50 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (9)

An efficient first principles method for molecular pump-probe NEXAFS spectra: Application to thymine and azobenzene journal October 2018
Picosecond timescale tracking of pentacene triplet excitons with chemical sensitivity journal June 2019
Conformationally controlled ultrafast intersystem crossing in bithiophene systems journal January 2018
Transient absorption spectroscopy using high harmonic generation: a review of ultrafast X-ray dynamics in molecules and solids
  • Geneaux, Romain; Marroux, Hugo J. B.; Guggenmos, Alexander
  • Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, Vol. 377, Issue 2145 https://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2017.0463
journal April 2019
Spin adapted implementation of EOM-CCSD for triplet excited states: Probing intersystem crossings of acetylacetone at the carbon and oxygen K-edges journal October 2019
Time-resolved near-edge X-ray absorption fine structure of pyrazine from electronic structure and nuclear wave packet dynamics simulations journal September 2019
Triplet vs πσ* state mediated N–H dissociation of aniline journal October 2019
The ultrafast X-ray spectroscopic revolution in chemical dynamics journal May 2018
A combined multi-reference pump-probe simulation method with application to XUV signatures of ultrafast methyl iodide photodissociation journal September 2019

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