From:E to Z and back again: Reversible photoisomerisation of an isolated charge-tagged azobenzene

Bull, James N. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0953-1716, Scholz, Michael S., Carrascosa, Eduardo and Bieske, Evan J. (2018) From:E to Z and back again: Reversible photoisomerisation of an isolated charge-tagged azobenzene. Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, 20 (1). pp. 509-513. ISSN 1463-9076

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Abstract

Substituted azobenzenes serve as chromophores and actuators in a wide range of molecular photoswitches. Here, tandem ion mobility spectrometry coupled with laser excitation is used to investigate the photoisomerisation of selected E and Z isomers of the charge-tagged azobenzene, methyl orange. Both isomers display a weak S1(nπ∗) photoisomerisation response in the blue part of the spectrum peaking at 440 nm and a more intense S2(ππ∗) photoisomerisation response in the near-UV with maxima at 370 and 310 nm for the E and Z isomers, respectively. The 60 nm separation between the S2(ππ∗) photo-response maxima for the two isomers allows them to be separately addressed in the gas phase and to be reversibly photoisomerised using different colours of light. This is an essential characteristic of an ideal photoswitch. The study demonstrates that a sequence of light pulses at different stages in an ion mobility spectrometer can be deployed to generate and probe isomers that cannot be electrosprayed directly from solution or produced through collisions in the ion source.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: physics and astronomy(all),physical and theoretical chemistry ,/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/3100
Faculty \ School: Faculty of Science > School of Chemistry
UEA Research Groups: Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Chemistry of Light and Energy
Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Centre for Photonics and Quantum Science
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Depositing User: LivePure Connector
Date Deposited: 04 Feb 2019 14:30
Last Modified: 09 Feb 2023 13:46
URI: https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/69835
DOI: 10.1039/c7cp07278c

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