Photochemistry With Plane-Polarized Light: Controlling Photochemical Reactivity Via Spatially Selective Excitation
Author ORCID Identifier
Evgueni Nesterov: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2407-9174
Publication Title
Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters
E-ISSN
19487185
Document Type
Article
Abstract
Photochemical reactions are intrinsically difficult to control because they involve high-energy excited-state species. Herein we report a novel approach toward controlling photochemical reactions via using the spatially selective excitation of specific electronic transitions. This can be performed using photochemical irradiation with the plane-polarized light of a photoreactive compound uniformly aligned in a nematic liquid-crystalline (LC) medium. Having chosen cyclopropenone photodecarbonylation as a proof-of-concept reaction, we demonstrated that it could be controlled via changing an angle between the incident light polarization plane and the LC director. We showed that two specific partially forbidden electronic transitions were mostly responsible for this photochemical reaction. We envision that this simple general method can be useful in experimental studies of the fundamental details of various photochemical processes and can help to increase the selectivity of photochemical transformations.
First Page
8745
Last Page
8750
Publication Date
10-15-2020
DOI
10.1021/acs.jpclett.0c02473
PubMed ID
32969217
Recommended Citation
Anokhin, Maksim V. and Nesterov, Evgueni E., "Photochemistry With Plane-Polarized Light: Controlling Photochemical Reactivity Via Spatially Selective Excitation" (2020). NIU Bibliography. 85.
https://huskiecommons.lib.niu.edu/niubib/85
Department
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
