Ultrafast Deactivation Processes in Aminopyridine Clusters:  Excitation Energy Dependence and Isotope Effects

Fast excited-state relaxation in H-bonded aminopyridine clusters occurs via hydrogen transfer in the excited state. We used femtosecond pump−probe spectroscopy to characterize the excited-state reaction coordinate. Considerable isotope effects for partially deuterated clusters indicate that H-transfer is the rate-limiting step and validate ab initio calculations in the literature. A nonmonotonous dependence on the excitation energy, however, disagrees with the picture of a simple barrier along the reaction coordinate. An aminopyridine dimer serves as a model for Watson−Crick base pairs, where similar reactions have been predicted by theory.