Direct Observation of Transient Species Generated from Protonation and Deprotonation of the Lowest Triplet of p-Nitrophenylphenol

Photo-induced proton coupled electron transfer(PCET)is essential in the biological,photosynthesis,catalysis and solar energy conversion processes.Recently,p-nitrophenylphenol(HO-Bp-NO2)has been used as a model compound to study the photo-induced PCET mechanism by using ultrafast spectroscopy.In transient absorption spectra both singlet and triplet states were observed to exhibit PCET behavior upon laser excitation of HO-Bp-NO2.When we focused on the PCET in the triplet state,a new sharp band attracted us.This band was recorded upon excitation of HO-Bp-NO2 in aprotic polar solvents,and has not been observed for p-nitrobiphenyl which is without hydroxyl substitution.In order to find out what the new band represents,acidic solutions were used as an additional proton donor considering the acidity of HO-Bp-NO2.With the help of results in strong(~10^-1 mol/L)and weak(~10^-4 mol/L)acidic solutions,the new band is identified as open shell singlet O-Bp-NO2H,which is generated through protonation of nitro O in 3HO-Bp-NO2 followed by deprotonation of hydroxyl.Kinetics analysis indicates that the formation of radical·OBp-NO2 competes with O-Bp-NO2H in the way of concerted electron-proton transfer and/or proton followed electron transfers and is responsible for the low yield of O-Bp-NO2H.The results in the present work will make it clear how the3HO-Bp-NO2 deactivates in aprotic polar solvents and provide a solid benchmark for the deeply studying the PCET mechanism in triplets of analogous aromatic nitro compounds.

A Mechanistic Switch in C-H Bond Activation by Elusive Fe^(V)(O)(TAML)Reaction Intermediate:A Theoretical Study

The divergent behavior of C-H bond oxidations of aliphatic substrates compared to those of aromatic substrates shown in Gupta’s experiment was mechanistically studied herein by means of density functional theory calculations.Our calculations reveal that such difference is caused by different reaction mechanisms between two kinds of substrates(the aliphatic cyclohexane,2,3-dimethylbutane and the aromatic toluene,ethylbenzene and cumene).For the aliphatic substrates,C-H oxidation by the oxidant Fe^(V)(O)(TAML)is a hydrogen atom transfer process;whereas for the aromatic substrates,C-H oxidation is a proton-coupled electron transfer(PCET)process with a proton transfer character on the transition state,that is,a proton-coupled electron transfer process holding a proton transfer-like transition state(PCET(PT)).This difference is caused by the strongπ-πinteractions between the tetra-anionic TAML ring and the phenyl ring of the aromatic substrates,which has a“pull”effect to make the electron transfer from substrates to the Fe=O moiety inefficient.