Deciphering the role of high frequency vibrations in electron transfer and charge transfer processes is important to understanding fundamental and applied chemical reactions.  In this talk I will describe our work towards understanding equilibrium and non-equilibrium vibrational couplings and relaxation dynamics of cyanide stretching vibrations in transition metal mixed valence dimer and trimer complexes dissolved in solution.  We probe coherent and incoherent vibrational relaxation dynamics following the ultrafast metal-to-metal charge transfer process.  Excess energy deposited into the CN stretching modes of the molecule is monitored as the photochemical reaction takes place, which elucidates the role of vibrational energy relaxation in chemical reactivity.  Our experiments suggest that the nuclear motions of the molecule are both coherently and incoherently coupled to the electronic charge transfer process.

Probing vibrational coupling and relaxation in cyanide-bridged transition metal mixed-valence complexes

253rd National Meeting (2017)

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.