Solution and Gas-Phase Photochemistry Involving Multiple and Delocalized Excited States

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Professor Harry Morrison of Purdue University will conduct a project with funding from the Organic Dynamics Program of the Chemistry Division emphasizing the study of the limitations and consequences of movement of electronic energy through `photonic wires.` These are assemblies of chromophores pendant on or incorporated into a passive framework, and in particular in the present case the passive framework is the steroid ring system. The transfer of electronic excitation absorbed by `antenna` chromophores to distal, formally unconjugated, groups may produce chemistry or quenching, depending on the groups, and Professor Morrison will be determining the ground rules for each. The study will be complemented by parallel theoretical and experimental studies intended to determine the role of through space mixing of orbitals in determining such ground rules. These studies will be accomplished in part by cooperative studies with senior collaborators at other institutions. An added effort will be made to understand the role of the second excited singlet state in indene photochemistry. The use of light in information transmission, storage, and retrieval is changing modern society. This project will generate basic results pertinent to the ability to use light in modulation of information transmission on the scale of an organic molecule. It will also support experimental results with theoretical calculations which allow a generalized picture to be developed.