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Revisiting photoisomerization in fluorinated analogues of acetylacetone trapped in cryogenic matrices

  • Regular Article – Molecular Physics and Chemical Physics
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Abstract

UV-induced processes are commonly studied in acetylacetone analogues. In this contribution, we revisit the existing work on the photoisomerization process in some of the fluorinated analogues of acetylacetone, i.e., trifluoroacetylacetone (F3-acac) and hexafluoroacetylacetone (F6-acac). We performed selective UV laser excitation of these molecules trapped in soft cryogenic matrices, namely neon and para-hydrogen, and probed by vibrational spectroscopy. Clear spectroscopy of 3 isomers of F6-acac and 6 isomers of F3-acac is obtained, including the first characterization of a second open enol isomer of hexafluoroacetylacetone. In addition, we present the electronic absorption spectra of both molecules in cryogenic matrices before and after specific UV irradiations, giving new data on the electronic transitions of photoproducts. Vibrational and electronic experimental results are analyzed and discussed within comparisons with DFT and TD-DFT calculations. Our findings contribute to a deeper understanding of the photoisomerization process in these molecules after electronic excitation in gas and condensed phase.

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Data Availability Statement

This article has data included as electronic supplementary information. Additional data will be made available on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the use of the high-performance computing center MésoLUM managed by ISMO (UMR8214) and LPGP (UMR8578), University Paris-Saclay (France). This work was supported by the RTRA Triangle de la Physique (2013-0436T REACMAQ). It benefited from the French-Lithuanian PHC GILIBERT program (42125XF and S-LZ-19−1 from RCL) and the French-Cuban PHC Carlos Finlay program (41805NA).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut des Sciences Moléculaires d’Orsay, CNRS, Université Paris-Sacla, 91405, Orsay, France

    Alejandro Gutiérrez-Quintanilla, Michèle Chevalier & Claudine Crépin

  2. Instituto Superior de Tecnologías y Ciencias Aplicadas (InSTEC), Universidad de La Habana, Ave. Salvador Allende No. 1110, 10400, Plaza de la Revolución, La Habana, Cuba

    Alejandro Gutiérrez-Quintanilla

  3. Université de Pau et des Pays de l’Adour, E2S UPPA, CNRS, IPREM, Pau, France

    Alejandro Gutiérrez-Quintanilla

  4. Institute of Chemical Physics, Vilnius University, Vilnius, Lithuania

    Rasa Platakyté & Justinas Ceponkus

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  1. Alejandro Gutiérrez-Quintanilla
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  2. Michèle Chevalier
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  3. Rasa Platakyté
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  4. Justinas Ceponkus
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Contributions

CC, MC, JC and AGQ contributed to the study’s conception and design. All authors were involved in material preparation, data collection, and analysis. The first draft of the manuscript was written by AGQ, and all authors contributed to the production of subsequent versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Alejandro Gutiérrez-Quintanilla or Claudine Crépin.

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Gutiérrez-Quintanilla, A., Chevalier, M., Platakyté, R. et al. Revisiting photoisomerization in fluorinated analogues of acetylacetone trapped in cryogenic matrices. Eur. Phys. J. D 77, 158 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1140/epjd/s10053-023-00727-0

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