A flash-photolysis electron spin resonance study of radicals formed from carboxylic acids; exchange effects in spin-polarized radicals

Abstract

The time-integration spectroscopy (TIS) technique has been applied to the study of transient radicals created by flash photolysis of solutions of benzene-1,2,4,5-tetracarboxylic acid (pyromellitic acid), benzene-1,2,-dicarboxylic acid (phthalic acid) and benzene-1,4-dicarboxylic acid (terephthalic acid). In these systems electron transfer, proton transfer and rotational isomerism all affect the spin-polarized spectra observed. The exchange processes are analysed theoretically, in the case of proton exchange for the first time in the polarized situation, and it is shown that the two different exchange processes can be simply differentiated in the time-dependent TIS spectra.