Photoinduced electron and h-atom transfer reactions of xanthone by laser flash photolysis

The property of the lowest excited triplet states of xanthone in acetonitrile was investigated using: time-resolved laser flash photolysis at 355 nm. The transient absorption spectra and the quenching rate constants (k(q)) of the excited xanthone with several amines were determined. Good correlation between 1gk(q) and the driving force of the reactions suggests the electron transfer mechanism, except aniline and 3-nitroaniline (3-NO2-A) which showed energy transfer mechanism. With the appearance of ketyl radical, hydrogen atom transfer also happened between xanthone and dimethyl-p-toluidine, 3,5,N,N-tetramethylaniline, N,N-dimethylaniline, and triethylamine. Therefore, both electron transfer and H-atom transfer occured in these systems. Great discrepancies of k(q) values were discovered in H-atom abstraction reactions for alcohols and phenols, which can be explained by different abstraction mechanisms. The quenching rate constants between xanthone and alcohols correlate well with the alpha-C-H bonding energy of alcohols.