title: Excited-state proton transfer: from constrained systems to "super" photoacids to superfast proton transfer.
abstract: We have used knowledge of the electronic structure of excited states of acids to design molecules that exhibit enhanced excited-state acidity. Such "super" photoacids are the strongest reversible photoacids known and allow the time evolution of proton transfer to be examined in a wide array of organic solvents. This includes breaking/formation of the hydrogen bonds in hundreds of femtoseconds, solvent reorientation and relaxation in picoseconds, proton dissociation, and, finally, diffusion and geminate recombination of the dissociated proton, observed in nanoseconds.
authors.affiliation: School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia 30332-0400, USA.
authors.forename: Laren M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Tolbert
authors.forename: Kyril M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Solntsev