Chemical Physics Letters, Vol.325, No.1-3, 171-175, 2000
Femtosecond laser studies of excited state intramolecular proton transfer in an ultraviolet-filter molecule
Following excitation by a femtosecond laser pulse at 346 nm, phenol, 2-(2H-benzotriazol-2-yl)-4-methyl-6-[2-methyl-3[1,3,3,3-tetramethyl-1-[( trimethylsilyl)oxy]disiloxanyl]propyl] in n-heptane relaxes towards its ground state in a four-step mechanism. By excited state intramolecular proton transfer (50 fs) the enol S-1 state produces the keto S-1' state responsible for a small gain spectrum above 600 nm. The latter relaxes to its keto ground state S-0' (130 fs) and the keto --> enol back proton transfer (500 fs) yields the vibrationally hot enol ground state, the cooling of which is a relatively slow process (much greater than 2 ps). We present kinetics and detailed transient absorption and gain spectra between 380 and 720 nm.