Project description:Ab initio molecular dynamics simulations have been performed in order to investigate the relaxation dynamics of uracil after UV excitation in gas phase. Intersystem crossing (ISC) has been included for the first time into time-dependent simulations of uracil, allowing the system to relax in the singlet as well as in the triplet states. The results show a qualitatively different picture than similar simulations that include singlet states only. The inclusion of ISC effectively quenches the relaxation to the singlet ground state and instead privileges transitions from the low-lying n?* state (S1) to a ??* triplet state (T2) followed by rapid internal conversion to the lowest triplet state.
Project description:Nitronaphthalene derivatives efficiently populate their electronically excited triplet states upon photoexcitation through ultrafast intersystem crossing (ISC). Despite having been studied extensively by time-resolved spectroscopy, the reasons behind their ultrafast ISC remain unknown. Herein, we present the first ab initio nonadiabatic molecular dynamics study of a nitronaphthalene derivative, 2-nitronaphthalene, including singlet and triplet states. We find that there are two distinct ISC reaction pathways involving different electronic states at distinct nuclear configurations. The high ISC efficiency is explained by the very small electronic and nuclear alterations that the chromophore needs to undergo during the singlet-triplet transition in the dominating ISC pathway after initial dynamics in the singlet manifold. The insights gained in this work are expected to shed new light on the photochemistry of other nitro polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons that exhibit ultrafast intersystem crossing.
Project description:The development of efficient organic light-emitting diodes (OLED) and organic photovoltaic cells requires control over the dynamics of spin sensitive excitations. Embedding heavy metal atoms in ?-conjugated polymer chains enhances the spin-orbit coupling (SOC), and thus facilitates intersystem crossing (ISC) from the singlet to triplet manifolds. Here we use various nonlinear optical spectroscopies such as two-photon absorption and electroabsorption in conjunction with electronic structure calculations, for studying the energies, emission bands and ultrafast dynamics of spin photoexcitations in two newly synthesized ?-conjugated polymers that contain intrachain platinum (Pt) atoms separated by one (Pt-1) or three (Pt-3) organic spacer units. The controllable SOC in these polymers leads to a record ISC time of <~1?ps in Pt-1 and ~6?ps in Pt-3. The tunable ultrafast ISC rate modulates the intensity ratio of the phosphorescence and fluorescence emission bands, with potential applications for white OLEDs.
Project description:We investigate the ultrafast transient absorption response of tetrakis(μ-pyrophosphito)diplatinate(II), [Pt2(μ-P2O5H2)4]4- [hereafter abbreviated Pt(pop)], in acetonitrile upon excitation of its lowest singlet 1A2u state. Compared with previously reported solvents [van der Veen RM, Cannizzo A, van Mourik F, Vlček A, Jr, Chergui M (2011) J Am Chem Soc 133:305-315], a significant shortening of the intersystem crossing (ISC) time (<1 ps) from the lowest singlet to the lowest triplet state is found, allowing for a transfer of vibrational coherence, observed in the course of an ISC in a polyatomic molecule in solution. Density functional theory (DFT) quantum mechanical/molecular mechanical (QM/MM) simulations of Pt(pop) in acetonitrile and ethanol show that high-lying, mostly triplet, states are strongly mixed and shifted to lower energies due to interactions with the solvent, providing an intermediate state (or manifold of states) for the ISC. This suggests that the larger the solvation energies of the intermediate state(s), the shorter the ISC time. Because the latter is smaller than the pure dephasing time of the vibrational wave packet, coherence is conserved during the spin transition. These results underscore the crucial role of the solvent in directing pathways of intramolecular energy flow.
Project description:The O((3)P) + C(2)H(4) reaction, of importance in combustion and atmospheric chemistry, stands out as a paradigm reaction involving triplet- and singlet-state potential energy surfaces (PESs) interconnected by intersystem crossing (ISC). This reaction poses challenges for theory and experiments owing to the ruggedness and high dimensionality of these potentials, as well as the long lifetimes of the collision complexes. Primary products from five competing channels (H + CH(2)CHO, H + CH(3)CO, H(2) + CH(2)CO, CH(3) + HCO, CH(2) + CH(2)O) and branching ratios (BRs) are determined in crossed molecular beam experiments with soft electron-ionization mass-spectrometric detection at a collision energy of 8.4 kcal/mol. As some of the observed products can only be formed via ISC from triplet to singlet PESs, from the product BRs the extent of ISC is inferred. A new full-dimensional PES for the triplet state as well as spin-orbit coupling to the singlet PES are reported, and roughly half a million surface hopping trajectories are run on the coupled singlet-triplet PESs to compare with the experimental BRs and differential cross-sections. Both theory and experiment find almost equal contributions from the two PESs to the reaction, posing the question of how important is it to consider the ISC as one of the nonadiabatic effects for this and similar systems involved in combustion chemistry. Detailed comparisons at the level of angular and translational energy distributions between theory and experiment are presented for the two primary channel products, CH(3) + HCO and H + CH(2)CHO. The agreement between experimental and theoretical functions is excellent, implying that theory has reached the capability of describing complex multichannel nonadiabatic reactions.
Project description:The electronic excited states of the iron(II) complex [FeII(tpy)(pyz-NHC)]2+ [tpy = 2,2':6',2″-terpyridine; pyz-NHC = 1,1'-bis(2,6-diisopropylphenyl)pyrazinyldiimidazolium-2,2'-diylidene] and their relaxation pathways have been theoretically investigated. To this purpose, trajectory surface-hopping simulations within a linear vibronic coupling model including a 244-dimensional potential energy surface (PES) with 20 singlet and 20 triplet coupled states have been used. The simulations show that, after excitation to the lowest-energy absorption band of predominant metal-to-ligand charge-transfer character involving the tpy ligand, almost 80% of the population undergoes intersystem crossing to the triplet manifold in about 50 fs, while the remaining 20% decays through internal conversion to the electronic ground state in about 300 fs. The population transferred to the triplet states is found to deactivate into two different regions of the PESs, one where the static dipole moment is small and shows increased metal-centered character and another with a large static dipole moment, where the electron density is transferred from the tpy to pyz-NHC ligand. Coherent oscillations of 400 fs are observed between these two sets of triplet populations, until the mixture equilibrates to a ratio of 60:40. Finally, the importance of selecting suitable normal modes is highlighted-a choice that can be far from straightforward in transition-metal complexes with hundreds of degrees of freedom.
Project description:We describe the design, bottom-up synthesis and X-ray single crystal structure of systematically twisted aromatics 1c and 2d for efficient intersystem crossing. Steric congestion at the cove region creates a nonplanar geometry that induces a significant yield of triplet excited states in the electron-poor core-twisted aromatics 1c and 2d. A systematic increase in the number of twisted regions in 1c and 2d results in a concomitant enhancement in the rate and yield of intersystem crossing, monitored using femtosecond and nanosecond transient absorption spectroscopy. Time-resolved absorption spectroscopic measurements display enhanced triplet quantum yields (?T = 10 ± 1% for 1c and ?T = 30 ± 2% for 2d) in the twisted aromatics when compared to a negligible ?T (<1%) in the planar analog 3c. Twist-induced spin-orbit coupling via activated out-of-plane C-H/C 0000000000000000000000000000000000 0000000000000000000000000000000000 0000000000000000000000000000000000 0000000000000000000000000000000000 0000000000000000000000000000000000 0000000000000000000000000000000000 0000000000000000000000000000000000 0000000000000000000000000000000000 0000000000000000000000000000000000 0000000000000000000000000000000000 0000000000000000000000000000000000 0000000000000000000000000000000000 0000000000000000000000000000000000 0000000000000000000000000000000000 0000000000000000000000000000000000 1111111111111111111111111111111111 1111111111111111111111111111111111 0000000000000000000000000000000000 0000000000000000000000000000000000 0000000000000000000000000000000000 0000000000000000000000000000000000 1111111111111111111111111111111111 1111111111111111111111111111111111 0000000000000000000000000000000000 0000000000000000000000000000000000 0000000000000000000000000000000000 0000000000000000000000000000000000 0000000000000000000000000000000000 0000000000000000000000000000000000 0000000000000000000000000000000000 0000000000000000000000000000000000 0000000000000000000000000000000000 0000000000000000000000000000000000 0000000000000000000000000000000000 C vibrations can facilitate the formation of triplet excited states in twisted aromatics 1c and 2d, in contrast to the negligible intersystem crossing in the planar analog 3c. The ease of synthesis, high solubility, access to triplet excited states and strong electron affinity make such imide functionalized core-twisted aromatics desirable materials for organic electronics such as solar cells.
Project description:We report time-dependent photoelectron spectra recorded with a single-photon ionization setup and extensive simulations of the same spectra for the excited-state dynamics of 2-thiouracil (2TU) in the gas phase. We find that single-photon ionization produces very similar results as two-photon ionization, showing that the probe process does not have a strong influence on the measured dynamics. The good agreement between the single-photon ionization experiments and the simulations shows that the norms of Dyson orbitals allow for qualitatively describing the ionization probabilities of 2TU. This reasonable performance of Dyson norms is attributed to the particular electronic structure of 2TU, where all important neutral and ionic states involve similar orbital transitions and thus the shape of the Dyson orbitals do not strongly depend on the initial neutral and final ionic state. We argue that similar situations should also occur in other biologically relevant thio-nucleobases, and that the time-resolved photoelectron spectra of these bases could therefore be adequately modeled with the techniques employed here.
Project description:Reverse intersystem crossing (RISC) from the triplet to singlet excited state is an attractive route to harvesting electrically generated triplet excitons as light, leading to highly efficient organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). An ideal electroluminescence efficiency of 100% can be achieved using RISC, but device lifetime and suppression of efficiency roll-off still need further improvement. We establish molecular design rules to enhance not only the RISC rate constant but also operational stability under electrical excitation. We show that the introduction of a second type of electron-donating unit in an initially donor-acceptor system induces effective mixing between charge transfer and locally excited triplet states, resulting in acceleration of the RISC rate while maintaining high photoluminescence quantum yield. OLEDs using our designed sky-blue emitter achieved a nearly 100% exciton production efficiency and exhibited not only low efficiency roll-off but also a marked improvement in operational stability.
Project description:Lipid membranes are more than just barriers between cell compartments; they provide molecular environments with a finely tuned balance between hydrophilic and hydrophobic interactions that enable proteins to dynamically fold and self-assemble to regulate biological function. Characterizing dynamics at the lipid-water interface is essential to understanding molecular complexities from the thermodynamics of liquid-liquid phase separation down to picosecond-scale reorganization of interfacial hydrogen-bond networks.Ultrafast vibrational spectroscopy, including two-dimensional infrared (2D IR) and vibrational sum-frequency generation (VSFG) spectroscopies, is a powerful tool to examine picosecond interfacial dynamics. Two-dimensional IR spectroscopy provides a bond-centered view of dynamics with subpicosecond time resolutions, as vibrational frequencies are highly sensitive to the local environment. Recently, 2D IR spectroscopy has been applied to carbonyl and phosphate vibrations intrinsically located at the lipid-water interface. Interface-specific VSFG spectroscopy probes the water vibrational modes directly, accessing H-bond strength and water organization at lipid headgroup positions. Signals in VSFG arise from the interfacial dipole contributions, directly probing headgroup ordering and water orientation to provide a structural view of the interface.In this Account we discuss novel applications of ultrafast spectroscopy to lipid membranes, a field that has experienced significant growth over the past decade. In particular, ultrafast experiments now offer a molecular perspective on increasingly complex membranes. The powerful combination of ultrafast, interface-selective spectroscopy and simulations opens up new routes to understanding multicomponent membranes and their function. This Account highlights key prevailing views that have emerged from recent experiments: (1) Water dynamics at the lipid-water interface are slow compared to those of bulk water as a result of disrupted H-bond networks near the headgroups. (2) Peptides, ions, osmolytes, and cosolvents perturb interfacial dynamics, indicating that dynamics at the interface are affected by bulk solvent dynamics and vice versa. (3) The interfacial environment is generally dictated by the headgroup structure and orientation, but hydrophobic interactions within the acyl chains also modulate interfacial dynamics. Ultrafast spectroscopy has been essential to characterizing the biophysical chemistry of the lipid-water interface; however, challenges remain in interpreting congested spectra as well as designing appropriate model systems to capture the complexity of a membrane environment.