Spectroscopic properties and singlet oxygen production by the compound ethyl 3,12-dioxopyran[3,2-a]xanthone-2-carboxylate.

The steady state and time resolved experiments together with absorption and emission spectroscopies and quantum chemical calculations have been employed to investigate spectroscopic properties of a xanthone-type compound (ethyl 3,12-dioxopyran[3,2-a]xanthone-2-carboxylate). The spectroscopic data show good agreement with results obtained from quantum chemical calculations. Additionally, this compound shows expressive quantum efficiency for triplet population and a quantum efficiency of singlet oxygen generation very close to unity.