Water-Chromophore Electron Transfer

What is it about?

Mario Barbatti has shown that an electron transfer from solvent molecules to the photoexcited chromophore can also induce internal conversion with little geometric distortion. Using computational dynamics simulations, he demonstrated that when a specific tautomer of adenine (7H-adenine) in water absorbs UV radiation, it dissipates the photoenergy as heat after receiving an electron from a water molecule nearby.

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Why is it important?

This result revealed an unknown internal-conversion pathway, with implications for the assignment of photoreactions in biological environments and for the design of new organic photodevices. The work was published in a recent issue of the Journal of the American Chemistry Society.