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Title: Intersystem crossing in the exit channel

Journal Article · · Nature Chemistry

We report that intersystem crossing (ISC), plays an important role in photochemistry. It is understood to be efficient when heavy atoms are present due to strong spin–orbit coupling, or when strongly bound long-lived complexes are formed that increase the chance of finding the singlet–triplet intersection seam. Here we present evidence for a different ISC mechanism in the bimolecular reaction of O(3P) with alkylamines. In crossed-beam experiments, product velocity-flux maps are measured for aminoalkyl radicals produced from H-abstraction from the methyl group, which also gives OH radicals as co-fragments. The low translational-energy release and isotropic angular distributions of the products indicate that such reactions undergo the formation of a complex before OH and aminoalkyl are produced. However, there is no well on the triplet potential-energy-surface that could support such a complex. Multireference ab initio calculations suggest, instead, that ISC occurs in the exit-channel region due to the long-range dipole–dipole interaction between the nascent radical product pair coupled with the vanishing singlet–triplet splitting at long range. Finally, ISC then leads to a deep hydroxylamine well before OH elimination.

Research Organization:
Univ. of Missouri, Columbia, MO (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES). Chemical Sciences, Geosciences, and Biosciences Division; ARO; National Science Foundation (NSF)
Grant/Contract Number:
SC0017130; W911NF-17-1-0099; CHE-1800171
OSTI ID:
1595258
Journal Information:
Nature Chemistry, Vol. 11, Issue 2; ISSN 1755-4330
Publisher:
Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 31 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (6)

First-principles dynamics of collisional intersystem crossing: resonance enhanced quenching of C( 1 D) by N 2 journal January 2019
A ConFlat iris diaphragm device for direct beam control and alignment inside a vacuum chamber journal July 2019
Spin-orbit coupling and vibronic transitions of two Ce(C 4 H 6 ) isomers probed by mass-analyzed threshold ionization and relativistic quantum computation journal September 2019
An unexpected spin flip alters the course of a chemical reaction journal February 2019
Visualizing spin degrees of freedom in atoms and molecules journal October 2019
Spin-Orbit Interactions in Ultrafast Molecular Processes journal January 2020

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