Observing the Structural Evolution in the Photodissociation of Diiodomethane with Femtosecond Solution X-Ray Scattering

Matthijs R. Panman, Elisa Biasin, Oskar Berntsson, Markus Hermann, Stephan Niebling, Ashley J. Hughes, Joachim Kübel, Kalina Atkovska, Emil Gustavsson, Amke Nimmrich, Asmus O. Dohn, Mads Laursen, Diana B. Zederkof, Alireza Honarfar, Kensuke Tono, Tetsuo Katayama, Shigeki Owada, Tim B. van Driel, Kasper Kjaer, Martin M. Nielsen, Jan Davidsson, Jens Uhlig, Kristoffer Haldrup, Jochen Hub, Sebastian Westenhoff

November 2020

Abstract

Resolving the structural dynamics of the initial steps of chemical reactions is challenging. We report the femtosecond time-resolved wide-angle x-ray scattering of the photodissociation of diiodomethane in cyclohexane. The data reveal with structural detail how the molecule dissociates into radicals, how the radicals collide with the solvent, and how they form the photoisomer. We extract how translational and rotational kinetic energy is dispersed into the solvent. We also find that 85% of the primary radical pairs are confined to their original solvent cage and discuss how this influences the downstream recombination reactions.

Type

Journal article

Publication

Physical Review Letters

Editor’s suggestion nd Featured in APS Physics.

Observing the Structural Evolution in the Photodissociation of Diiodomethane with Femtosecond Solution X-Ray Scattering

Abstract

Markus Hermann

Postdoc

Kalina Atkovska

PhD student and Postdoc

Jochen Hub

Professor of Computational Biophysics