Ligand-Centred Fluorescence and Electronic Relaxation Cascade at Vibrational Time Scales in Transition-Metal Complexes

Using femtosecond-resolved photoluminescence up-conversion, we report the observation of the fluorescence of the high-lying ligand-centered (LC) electronic state upon 266 nm excitation of an iridium complex, Ir(ppy)3, with a lifetime of 70 \ub1 10 fs. It is accompanied by a simultaneous emission of all lower-lying electronic states, except the lowest triplet metal-to-ligand charge-transfer (3MLCT) state that shows a rise on the same time scale. Thus, we observe the departure, the intermediate steps, and the arrival of the relaxation cascade spanning 3c1.6 eV from the 1LC state to the lowest 3MLCT state, which then yields the long-lived luminescence of the molecule. This represents the first measurement of the total relaxation time over an entire cascade of electronic states in a polyatomic molecule. We find that the relaxation cascade proceeds in 4810 fs, which is faster than some of the highest-frequency modes of the system. We invoke the participation of the latter modes in conical intersections and their overdamping to low-frequency intramolecular modes. On the basis of literature, we also conclude that this behavior is not specific to transition-metal complexes but also applies to organic molecules

Dual luminescence, interligand decay, and nonradiative electronic relaxation of cyclometalated iridium complexes in solution

Femtosecond broadband photoluminescence studies are presented for Ir(ppy)3 (Ir1), Ir(ppy)2(pic) (Ir2), Ir(ppy)2(bpy)(PF6) (Ir3), Ir(ppz)3 (Ir4), and Ir(ppz)2dipy (Ir5) (where ppy = 2-phenylpyridine, pic = picolinate, bpy = 2,2\u2032-bipyridine, ppz = 1-phenylpyrazole, and dipy = 5-phenyldipyrrinato) in solution. Upon 400-nm excitation of Ir1-Ir3, we observed a prompt population of the lowest MLCT states. The higher states decay on an ultrafast time scale (<100 fs), whereas the lowest 3MLCT state undergoes further vibrational relaxation on a 1-ps time scale. In Ir3, this relaxation is accompanied by an interligand decay from the ppy to the bpy ligand in 3c1.5 ps. For the ppy-containing complexes (Ir1 and Ir2), we found that, at 100 ps, the luminescence is red-shifted with respect to the steady-state emission. This is explained in terms of a time-delayed dual luminescence, which we attribute to a double-well minimum configuration of the lowest emitting triplet states involving the ppy moiety. Ir4 shows a prompt population of the lowest excited state, which then undergoes vibrational relaxation in 3c0.5 ps. Finally, at short times, Ir5 exhibits fluorescence from the lowest 1LC state, which decays in 3c100 fs to the manifold of 3LC states. Overall, this study shows that, although the ultrafast relaxation to the lowest electronic states is quite similar to that of other transition-metal complexes, most of the differences occur at the lowest emissive states, with effects such as time-delayed dual fluorescence, interligand decay, and nonradiative relaxation to the ground or lower-lying metal-centered states. Understanding these effects is crucial for obtaining optimal performances of iridium complexes, calling for further iterations between chemical synthesis and photophysical studies to optimize these complexes

NO binding kinetics in myoglobin investigated by picosecond Fe K-edge absorption spectroscopy

Diatomic ligands in hemoproteins and the way they bind to the active center are central to the protein's function. Using picosecond Fe K-edge X-ray absorption spectroscopy, we probe the NO-heme recombination kinetics with direct sensitivity to the Fe-NO binding after 532-nm photoexcitation of nitrosylmyoglobin ( MbNO) in physiological solutions. The transients at 70 and 300 ps are identical, but they deviate from the difference between the static spectra of deoxymyoglobin and MbNO, showing the formation of an intermediate species. We propose the latter to be a six-coordinated domed species that is populated on a timescale of similar to 200 ps by recombination with NO ligands. This work shows the feasibility of ultrafast pump-probe X-ray spectroscopic studies of proteins in physiological media, delivering insight into the electronic and geometric structure of the active center

Femtosecond X-ray absorption study of electron localization in photoexcited anatase TiO2

Transition metal oxides are among the most promising solar materials, whose properties rely on the generation, transport and trapping of charge carriers (electrons and holes). Identifying the latter's dynamics at room temperature requires tools that combine elemental and structural sensitivity, with the atomic scale resolution of time (femtoseconds, fs). Here, we use fs Ti K-edge X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) upon 3.49 eV (355 nm) excitation of aqueous colloidal anatase titanium dioxide nanoparticles to probe the trapping dynamics of photogenerated electrons. We find that their localization at Titanium atoms occurs in < 300 fs, forming Ti3+ centres, in or near the unit cell where the electron is created. We conclude that electron localization is due to its trapping at pentacoordinated sites, mostly present in the surface shell region. The present demonstration of fs hard X-ray absorption capabilities opens the way to a detailed description of the charge carrier dynamics in transition metal oxides

Solvent Composition Drives the Rebinding Kinetics of Nitric Oxide to Microperoxidase

Abstract The rebinding kinetics of NO after photodissociation from microperoxidase (Mp-9) is studied in different solvent environments. In mixed glycerol/water (G/W) mixtures the dissociating ligand rebinds with a yield close to 1 due to the cavities formed by the solvent whereas in pure water the ligand can diffuse into the solvent after photodissociation. In the G/W mixture, only geminate rebinding on the sub-picosecond and 5 ps time scales was found and the rebinding fraction is unity which compares well with available experiments. Contrary to that, simulations in pure water find two time scales – ~10 ps and ~200 ps - indicating that both, geminate rebinding and rebinding after diffusion of NO in the surrounding water contribute. The rebinding fraction is around 0.63 within 1 ns which is in stark contrast with experiment. Including ions (Na and Cl) at 0.15 M concentration in water leads to rebinding kinetics tending to that in the glycerol/water mixture and yields agreement with experiments. The effect of temperature is also probed and found to be non-negligible. The present simulations suggest that NO rebinding in Mp is primarily driven by thermal fluctuations which is consistent with recent resonance Raman spectroscopy experiments and simulations on MbNO