Molecular Structure Determination for Photogenerated Intermediates in Photoinduced Electron Transfer Reactions Using Steady-State and Transient XAFS

Abstract
Many photoinduced electron transfer reactions are accompanied by nuclear rearrangements of the molecules involved. In order to understand the reactivities of the molecules and the reaction mechanisms, precise information on the molecular structural changes accompanying the electron transfer is often required. We present here conventional XAFS and transient energy dispersive XAFS studies on (1) the structures of excited and photoinduced charge separated states of porphyrin and porphyrin based supermolecules, and (2) structures of TiO₂ colloid and the heavy metal ions that bind to the colloid surfaces during photocatalytic reductions.