Relaxation and dissociation following photoexcitation of the (μ-N2)[Mo(N[t-Bu]Ar)3]2 dinitrogen cleavage intermediate.

Frequency resolved pump-probe spectroscopy was performed on isolated (μ-N(2))[Mo(N[t-Bu]Ar)(3)](2) (Ar = 3,5-C(6)H(3)Me(2)), an intermediate formed in the reaction of Mo(N[t-Bu]Ar)(3) to bind and cleave dinitrogen. Evidence is presented for 300 fs internal conversion followed by subpicosecond vibrational cooling on the ground electronic state in competition with bond dissociation. Fast cooling following photoexcitation leads to a relatively low overall dissociation yield of 5%, in quantitative agreement with previous work [Curley, J.

Tuning electron transfer rates via systematic shifts in the acceptor state density using size-selected ZnO colloids.

We report direct measurements of the influence of the available density of acceptor states on the rate of near-barrierless electron transfer between a dye sensitizer and an oxide semiconductor. The electron donor was the excited state of a zinc porphyrin, and the acceptors were a series of size-selected ZnO nanocrystals. The available density of states was tuned by controlling the relative position of the ZnO band edge using quantum confinement.

The influence of internal charge transfer on nonradiative decay in substituted terthiophenes.

Photophysical data for a series of end substitued 3',4'-dibutyl-2,2':5',2''-terthiophenes are reported. Static absorption and fluorescence, quantum yields, time-resolved fluorescence, and time- and frequency-resolved pump-probe spectra are applied to investigate excited state relaxation in bromo, nitro, and tricyanovinyl substituted species in a variety of solvents. The effect of solvent polarizability and end-group substitution is discussed in the context of charge transfer in the excited state and its impact on nonradiative decay rates.