The photodissociation of diiodomethane following excitation at 305 nm in supercritical CO2 was investigated by femtosecond pump‐probe absorption spectroscopy at pressures between 10 and 100 MPa. As in liquid solution, transient absorption signals in the wavelength range from 350 to 450 nm generally show an instantaneous peak, followed by a fast initial decay (200–300 fs) and a subsequent rise on a 10‐ps timescale. The initial fast decay time is found to be linearly dependent on viscosity, suggesting that dissociative motion on the repulsive surface is damped by solvent friction. Both amplitude and formation rate of the rising component, which is assigned to formation of iso‐diiodomethane within the solvent cage, increase with increasing pressure. Spectral narrowing of the transient absorption band indicates vibrational cooling of hot isomer by energy transfer to CO2 in about 20–40 ps. Immediately after excitation, this band shows absorption anisotropy for about 3 ps. The anisotropy decay rate increases from 3·1011 s−1 to 2·1012 s−1 as the pressure is lowered from 80 to 10 MPa. It is tentatively assigned to rotational relaxation of “hot” CH2I radicals generated in ultrafast photodissociation of the parent molecule. The observed density dependence of formation rate and relative yield of iso‐diiodomethane are described in terms of a simple kinetic model.

The photophysics and photochemistry of (1-biphenyl-4-yl-1-methyl-ethyl)-tert-butyl diazene were thoroughly studied by laser flash photolysis from the picosecond to the microsecond time domain. The compound has favorable features as a radical photoinitiator and as a probe for cage effect studies in liquids, supercritical fluids, and compressed gases. The biphenyl moiety acts as an antenna efficiently transferring electronic energy to the dissociative 1 n,π* state centered on the azo moiety. By picosecond experiments irradiating at the biphenyland at the azo-centered transitions, we were able to demonstrate this fact as well as determine a lifetime of 0.7 ps for the buildup of 1-biphenyl-4-yl-1-methyl-ethyl radicals (BME • ). The sum of in-cage reaction rate constants of BME • radicals by combination and disproportionation is 5 × 10 10 s -1 . The free radical quantum yield in solution is 0.21 (φ BME • ) in n-hexane at room temperature, whereas the dissociation quantum yield approaches 50%. The symmetric ketone, 2,4-bis-biphenyl-4-yl-2,4-dimethyl-pentan-2-one, was used as a reference compound for the production and reaction of BME • radicals. Transient IR measurements show CO stretching bands of the excited 3 π,π* and 1 n,π* states but no dissociation up to 0.5 ns. A fluorescence lifetime of 1 ns for this ketone is consistent with this observation. By transient actinometry and kinetic decays in the microsecond time range, we measured ε BME • ) (2.3 ( 0.2) × 10 4 M -1 cm -1 at 325 nm and a second-order rate constant of 5.8 × 10 9 M -1 s -1 for the consumption of BME • radicals.

We studied the photolysis of (1-biphenyl-4-yl-1-methyl-ethyl)-tert-butyl diazene in supercritical CO(2) and Xe, as well as in compressed Kr. The compound has good solubility in the mentioned fluids, allowing the photolysis measurements to be performed in CO(2) at 1.4 K above T(c) and at pressures as low as 70 bar. We monitored relative cage effect after nanosecond laser pulses by measuring the absorbance at 320 nm (DeltaA(t-->0)) corresponding to the total amount of out-of-cage 1-biphenyl-4-yl-1-methyl-ethyl radical (BME.) produced after nitrogen loss of the diazene. In supercritical CO(2) and Xe, isothermal values of DeltaA(t-->0) showed an increase-decrease behavior with increasing pressure at constant temperature, a typical feature of the transition from the solvent energy transfer to the friction controlled regimes. The comparison of the behavior of DeltaA(t-->0) in CO(2) at reduced temperatures between 1.004 and 1.027, in Xe, and in Kr points to an absence of enhanced cage effect near the critical point. Compatibility with spectroscopic data is analyzed.

The density dependence of diiodomethane photoinduced isomerization in supercritical (sc) CO2, CHF3, and C2H6 was investigated by transient absorption spectroscopy, covering a fluid density range from 0.7 to 2.5 (in reduced units). The solvent-caged photoproduct iso-diiodomethane is formed even at the lowest density, and its yield increases about 4-fold over the whole range. At the same time, isomer formation rate constants increase by roughly an order of magnitude and show little variation between CO2, C2H6, and CHF3. Furthermore, the formation rate constant decreases significantly with increasing excitation energy. We propose an isomer formation mechanism involving a rapidly established preequilibrium between a solvent-caged iodine atom-methyliodide radical pair and a loosely bound iodine-methyliodide radical complex, from which the reaction subsequently proceeds to the isomer. The latter step seems to be controlled by collisional stabilization of the initially hot radical moiety, as the formation rate constant increases linearly with sc solvent viscosity. The model predicts a quadratic dependence of relative isomer yield on fluid density. A corresponding correlation is found with the local fluid density, calculated via solute-solvent radial distribution functions obtained from molecular dynamics (MD) simulations.