Highlight: Time-resolved X-ray absorption spectroscopy unravels isomerization reaction of an aromatic thiol 17.05.2017
17 May 2017
Project A4 Miguel Ochmann, Institute for Nanostructure and Solid State PhysicsWe made the first step toward understanding the transient electronic structure during light-induced reaction dynamics of sulfur-containing molecules in solution. The high electronic variability of sulfur allows for many oxidation states and often leads to multiple quantum pathways and great complexity in the outcome of material transformations involving sulfur. We employed time-resolved sulfur-1s absorption spectroscopy as a new element-specific electronic structure probe of transient states of matter to study a model aromatic thiol system. Our study unequivocally identifies the transient photoproducts by their unique sulfur-1s absorption signature as the accompanying theory accurately predicts. Moreover, our study explains the so-called regioselectivity of thione isomerization in terms of the resulting radical frontier orbitals.