Influence of an intermolecular charge-transfer state on excited-state relaxation dynamics: solvent effect on the methylnaphthalene-oxygen system and its significance for singlet oxygen production.

The extent to which an intermolecular charge-transfer (CT) state can influence excited-state relaxation dynamics is examined for the system wherein 1-methylnaphthalene (MN) interacts with molecular oxygen. The MN-O2 system is ideally suited for such a study because excited states can be independently accessed by (i) irradiation into the discrete MN-O2 CT absorption band, (ii) direct irradiation of MN, and (iii) the photosensitized production of triplet state MN. Changing the solvent in which the MN-O2 system is dissolved influences the MN-dependent photoinduced production of singlet oxygen, O2(a1Delta(g)), which, in turn, yields information about fundamental concepts of state mixing.