Claremont Colleges Scholarship @ Claremont All HMC Faculty Publications and Research HMC Faculty Scholarship 1-1-2000 Solvent as Electron Donor: Donor/Acceptor Electronic Coupling Is a Dynamical Variable Edward W. Castner Jr. Rutgers University Darcy Kennedy '00 Claremont McKenna College Robert J. Cave Harvey Mudd College Recommended Citation Castner, E.W. Jr.; Kennedy, D.; Cave, R.J. “Solvent as Electron Donor: Donor/Acceptor Coupling is a Dynamical Variable,” J. Phys. Chem. A 2000, 104, 2869. DOI: 10.1021/jp9936852 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the HMC Faculty Scholarship at Scholarship @ Claremont. It has been accepted for inclusion in All HMC Faculty Publications and Research by an authorized administrator of Scholarship @ Claremont. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. J. Phys. Chem. A 2000, 104, 2869-2885 2869 ARTICLES Solvent as Electron Donor: Donor/Acceptor Electronic Coupling Is a Dynamical Variable Edward W. Castner, Jr.*,† BrookhaVen National Laboratory, Chemistry Department, Building 555A, Upton, New York 11973-5000 Darcy Kennedy and Robert J. Cave*,‡ HarVey Mudd College, Department of Chemistry, Claremont, California 91711 ReceiVed: October 14, 1999; In Final Form: December 24, 1999 We combine analysis of measurements by femtosecond optical spectroscopy, computer simulations, and the generalized Mulliken-Hush (GMH) theory in the study of electron-transfer reactions and electron donor- acceptor interactions. Our focus is on ultrafast photoinduced electron-transfer reactions from aromatic amine solvent donors to excited-state acceptors. The experimental results from femtosecond dynamical measurements fall into three categories: six coumarin acceptors reductively quenched by N,N-dimethylaniline (DMA), eight electron-donating amine solvents reductively quenching coumarin 152 (7-(dimethylamino)-4-(trifluoromethyl)- coumarin), and reductive quenching dynamics of two coumarins by DMA as a function of dilution in the nonreactive solvents toluene and chlorobenzene.