Katsuji Okada, Minoru Yamaji and and Haruo Shizuka
The quenching processes of triplet benzophenone (3BP*) by alkylbenzenes (AB) and anisole derivatives (AD) in benzene (Bz) and a mixture of acetonitrile (ACN) and water (4:1 v/v) have been studied on the basis of rate constants and efficiencies determined by nanosecond laser flash photolysis at 355 nm at 295 K. It was found that (1) the deactivation of 3BP* by ADs in ACN–H2O (4:1 v/v) was governed by electron transfer (ET) to produce the benzophenone anion (BP-) and corresponding cation (AD+) radicals with efficiencies, αET<1 whereas no chemical species were formed in Bz; and (2) photoreduction of 3BP* by ABs resulted in benzophenone ketyl radical (BPK) formation by benzylic hydrogen abstraction (HA) with efficiencies αHA<1 in Bz and ACN–H2O (4:1 v/v). The residual efficiency (αIQ: 1-αET or 1-αHA) was attributed to a bimolecular process with no photochemical product, which was named ‘induced-quenching (IQ)’. The quenching rate constants (kq) of 3BP* by ADs and ABs were less than the diffusion limits of both Bz and ACN–H2O (4:1 v/v). The net bimolecular rate constants for the ET, HA and IQ processes were estimated from the kq values and efficiencies. The rate constants (kET and kIQ) of ET and IQ with AD versus the oxidation potential (Eox) of AD followed Rehm–Weller behaviour while logarithmic rate constants (kHA and kIQ) of HA and IQ by ABs increased linearly with a decrease in the Eox of AB. It was suggested, for the deactivation mechanism of 3BP* by ABs and ADs (RH), that (1) the IQ process was intersystem crossing (ISC) enhanced by the partial charge–transfer (CT) character of the triplet exciplexes, 3(BPδ-···RHδ+)cage*; (2) radical ion formation by ET might be accomplished in a polar solvent by further CT interaction in the exciplex; (3) the process of BPK formation was inferred to be H-atom transfer in the exciplex, where the more protic H-atom was readily mobile, rather than ET followed by proton transfer and (4) the loss of efficiencies of photochemical-product formation was derived not from back ET but from the IQ process, inherent to photoreactions, via triplet exciplexes. The deactivation processes of 3BP* by RH are illustrated in Scheme 1.