Abstract
The ultrafast reaction dynamics following 295-nm photodissociation of Re2(CO)1O were studied experimentally with 300-fs time resolution in the reactive, strongly coordinating CCl4 solution and in the inert, weakly coordinating hexane solution. Density-functional theoretical (DFT) and ab initio calculations were used to further characterize the transient intermediates seen in the experiments. It was found that the quantum yield of the Re-Re bond dissociation is governed by geminate recombination on two time scales in CCl4, ∼50 and ∼500 ps. The recombination dynamics are discussed in terms of solvent caging in which the geminate Re(CO)5 pair has a low probability to escape the first solvent shell in the first few picoseconds after femtosecond photolysis. The other photofragmentation channel resulted in the equatorially solvated dirhenium nonacarbonyl eq-Re2(CO)9(solvent). Theoretical calculations indicated that a structural reorganization energy cost on the order of 6-7 kcal/mol might be required for the unsolvated nonacarbonyl to coordinate to a solvent molecule. These results suggest that for Re(CO)5 the solvent can be treated as a viscous continuum, whereas for the Re2(CO)9 the solvent is best described in molecular terms.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 4204-4210 |
Number of pages | 7 |
Journal | Journal of the American Chemical Society |
Volume | 123 |
Issue number | 18 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 2001 |
Externally published | Yes |
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- General Chemistry
- Biochemistry
- Catalysis
- Colloid and Surface Chemistry