Excited-state lifetime of propadienylidene, l-C3H2.

The excited-state dynamics of the singlet carbene propadienylidene, l-C(3)H(2), were investigated by femtosecond time-resolved photoionisation. The carbene was excited into the C (1)A(1) state with 250 nm pulses and the subsequent excited state dynamics were probed by multiphoton ionization with 800 nm pulses. The lifetime of the C (1)A(1) state was determined to be 70 fs. In agreement with recent nanosecond experiments, we assume that the carbene deactivates to the electronic ground state where it subsequently dissociates. Since propadienylidene was generated from 3-bromo-1-iodopropyne, two further radical intermediates were studied, IC(3)H(2) and C(3)H(2)Br. For both species, an ultrafast excited state decay was observed with an upper limit of 40 fs for the respective lifetimes.