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Ultraviolet absorbers such as Tinuvin P (2-(2-hydroxy-5-methylphenyl)benzotriazole), 1, achieve their exceptional photostabilities as a result of deactivation of excited singlet states through excited state intramolecular proton transfer (ESIPT). Adding a methyl group to the 6′ position of 2-arylbenzotriazoles reveals an additional excited singlet state deactivation mechanism in this class of molecules which does not require intramolecular hydrogen bonding. Steady state fluorescence and fluorescence lifetime measurements for a series of 6′-methyl-2-arylbenzotriazoles provides compelling evidence for a twisted intramolecular charge transfer (TICT) mechanism of excited singlet state deactivation. Due to the steric requirements of the 6′-methyl group, conformations are favored in which the phenyl and triazole rings are no longer coplanar. In the case of compound 11 (2-(6-methoxy-2,3-dimethylphenyl)-2H-benzotriazole), the presence of a 2′-methoxy group enhances nonplanarity and results in large deactivation rates. Compound 12 (2-(6-methoxy-2,3-dimethylphenyl)-5-(trifluoromethyl)-2H-benzotriazole), which possesses both twist and enhanced donor/acceptor properties, undergoes the most efficient fluorescence quenching for the methoxyarylbenzotriazoles. Compounds with both a 6′-methyl and a hydroxy group on the phenyl ring exhibit diffusion controlled quenching (k q ) 2 × 10 10 M -1 s -1) by DMSO. This quenching appears to result from either partial or complete excited state proton transfer to DMSO, which enhances TICT deactivation of the singlet excited state.

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Time-resolved electron spin resonance (TR-EPR) has been used to investigate the chemically induced dynamic electron polarization (CIDEP) generated by the interaction between a stable free radical (TEMPO) and the triplet states of thioxanthonedioxide derivatives. The intensity of CIDEP for intermolecular triplet quenching (thioxanthonedioxide methylester triplets with TEMPO) and intramolecular triplet quenching were compared using a covalently linked TEMPO-thioxanthonedioxide molecule. It is shown that at equivalent concentrations of TEMPO, the CIDEP is much larger in the case of intramolecular triplet quenching than for intermolecular quenching. The CIDEP intensity for intermolecular triplet quenching is limited to a maximum TEMPO concentration of ∼4 mM (at which point spin-spin interactions become dominant) and reaches only 1/8 of the intensity for intramolecular quenching. Laser flash photolysis experiments at room temperature showed that the intramolecular triplet quenching is fast (τ t < 20 ns). This quenching reaction is also dominant at low temperatures in organic glasses (77 K), which was demonstrated by low-temperature phosphorescence and EPR analysis.

We present the first ever measurements of living chain molecular weight distributions (MWDs), ψ o (N), in free radical polymerization (FRP), using a new technique, the "photocopy method". Though living chains are the fundamental objects in FRP, their MWDs have eluded measurement until now, principally due to their very short lifetimes (j1 s). In the photocopy method, the living population is converted, essentially instantaneously, to a labeled inert one by "photoinhibitor" molecules activated by a short laser pulse. This floods the FRP with photoinhibitor radicals, which ideally (i) are extremely slow to initiate new living chains yet (ii) couple with existing living chains (and each other) at near diffusion-controlled rates and (iii) carry a fluorescent label. Thus, the living chains are "frozen" and labeled. They are subsequently detected selectively using GPC equipped with a fluorescence detector (a second detector simultaneously detects unlabeled chains). We applied the photocopy method to low conversion methyl methacrylate FRP. Our measured MWDs are exponential as predicted by the classical FlorySchulz theory (which ignores the chain length dependence of the termination rate constant, k t), but only for chains longer than the mean living chain length N h o. For N < N h o, our data are consistent with a stretched exponential as predicted by modern FRP theories accounting for N dependence of kt. However, the small N data may also be accounted for by nonideal effects, initiation of new living chains by photoinhibitors, which lead to power law behavior. Another complication is that thermal initiation persists during the photocopying process in its present form. Thus, post-laser-pulse initiated living chains react with photoinhibitor radicals, distorting the measured MWDs from that of the steady-state living chains. From the measured living and dead MWDs, we infer living and dead chain concentrations and mean lengths and the fraction of living chains terminating via coupling. Finally, using reported values of propagation rate constants, we estimate mean living chain lifetime, polymerization rate, and the average termination rate constant.