1. Controlled Electron Transfer in Hydrogen-Bonded Systems
Ksenija D. Glusac, Bowling Green State University
Bowling Green, Ohio
This project focuses on finding ways to achieve long-lived charge separation in PET by using proton-coupled electron transfer (PCET) for this purpose. In the initial set of experiments, we analyzed the excited state properties of five NI derivatives using fs transient absorption.
One of the key findings of our analysis is that the excited state properties of NI derivatives are determined by a competition between two close-lying excited states: a ,* excited state arising from a conjugated system of the molecule (S1) and a n,* excited state arising due to a charge transfer from lone electron pairs of the oxygen atoms of the imide moiety to the * orbital of the conjugated system (S2) .
We further investigated the PET between hydrogen-bonded NI-PYR systems. We found that a fast excited-state deactivation occurs in the hydrogen-bonded complex. This deactivation is faster that the time-resolution of our setup, making it impossible to study electron transfer dynamics.
We are currently in the process of synthesizing a covalently linked perylene-quinone model compound. We expect this model system to be better for PCET studies.