Photo-oxidation of ferrocenyl-substituted carboxylic acids

Abstract

Photochemical studies have shown that the u.v. excitation of ferrocenylacetate ion (I) or of ferrocenoate ion (II) leads in each case to an excited state which may transfer an electron to an acceptor such as N₂O. The lifetime of these excited states are found to be at least 2 µs (I) and 0.07 µs (II). Unlike its higher homologues, the dipolar ion obtained by electron transfer from (I) is unstable, especially at high pH.