Spectroscopic evidence for the formation of singlet molecular oxygen (1.DELTA.gO2) upon irradiation of a solvent-oxygen (3.SIGMA.g-O2) cooperative absorption band

It is well-known that the presence of molecular oxygen (/sup 3/..sigma../sub g//sup -/O/sub 2/) in a variety of organic solvents causes an often substantial red shift in the solvent absorption spectrum. This extra, broad absorption feature is reversibly removed by purging the solvent with nitrogen gas. Mulliken and Tsubomura assigned the oxygen-dependent absorption band to a transition from a ground state solvent-oxygen complex to a solvent-oxygen charge transfer (CT) state (sol/sup .+/O/sub 2//sup .-/). In addition to the broad Mulliken CT band, there are, often in the same spectral region, distinct singlet-triplet transitions (T/sub 1/ reverse arrow S/sub 0/) which are enhanced by molecular oxygen (/sup 3/..sigma../sub g//sup -/O/sub 2/). Since both of these solvent-oxygen cooperative transitions may result in the formation of reactive oxygenating species, singlet molecular oxygen (/sup 1/..delta../sub g/O/sub 2/) and/or the superoxide ion (O/sub 2//sup .-/), it follows that recent studies have focused on unsaturated hydrocarbon oxygenation subsequent to the irradiation of the oxygen-induced absorption bands in both the solution phase and cryogenic (10 K) glasses. In these particular experiments, oxygenated products characteristic of both /sup 1/..delta../sub g/O/sub 2/ and O/sub 2//sub .-/ were obtained, although the systems studied appeared to involve the participation of one intermediate at the exclusion of the other. In this communication, the authors provide, for the first time, direct spectroscopic evidence for the formation of /sup 1/..delta../sub g/O/sub 2/ following a solvent-oxygen (/sup 3/..sigma../sub g//sup -/O/sub 2/) cooperative absorption. They have observed, in a time-resolved experiment, a near-IR luminescence subsequent to laser excitation of the oxygen-induced absorption bands of mesitylene, p-xylene, o-xylene, toluene, and benzene at 355 nm and 1,4-dioxane at 266 nm. They suggest that this signal is due to /sup 1/..delta../sub g/O/sub 2/ phosphorescence.