Photoinduced Electron-Transfer (PET) Mediated Fragmentation of Picolinium-Derived Redox Probes.

The photolysis of covalently linked N-alkyl picolinium phenylacetate-carbazole dyads was analyzed experimentally and by using density functional theory (DFT) and time dependent-DFT (TD-DFT) calculations. In contrast to earlier observations efficient one and two-photon fragmentations conditions were found for 15c (delta(u)=0.16 GM at 730 nm) opening the way for the design of a novel class of "caged" compounds.