Physical chemistry through electron spin polarisation. The Bruker lecture†

Abstract

New methods are introduced for studying novel physical chemistry through observations of spin-polarized radicals. This includes the photophysics of molecules in solution, including the anisotropy of the rates of inter-system crossing between excited singlet state molecules and excited triplet state sub-levels, and measurement of the re-encounter probabilities of free radicals during the geminate period of their reaction. A simple and quite general method is described for measuring the absolute magnitudes of the spin polarization in both triplet states and radicals in solution.