Oliver Thomas A A, Zhang Yuyuan, Roy Anirban, Ashfold Michael N R, Bradforth Stephen E
School of Chemistry, University of Bristol , Bristol, BS8 1TS, United Kingdom.
University of Southern California , Los Angeles, California 90089, United States.
J Phys Chem Lett. 2015 Oct 15;6(20):4159-64. doi: 10.1021/acs.jpclett.5b01861. Epub 2015 Oct 6.
The excited state dynamics of phenol in water have been investigated using transient absorption spectroscopy. Solvated electrons and vibrationally cold phenoxyl radicals are observed upon 200 and 267 nm excitation, but with formation time scales that differ by more than 4 orders of magnitude. The impact of these findings is assessed in terms of the relative importance of autoionization versus proton-coupled electron transfer mechanisms in this computationally tractable model system.
