Coherent two-dimensional electronic spectroelectrochemistry

Spectrochim Acta A Mol Biomol Spectrosc. 2021 May 15:253:119567. doi: 10.1016/j.saa.2021.119567. Epub 2021 Feb 6.

Abstract

We report the development of a new spectroscopic scheme, coherent two-dimensional (2D) electronic spectroelectrochemistry. Conventional 2D electronic spectroscopy has become well established to investigate molecular energy transfer, charge transfer, or structural dynamics with femtosecond time resolution following electronic excitation, providing frequency resolution for both the excitation and the detection step. Here we combine this method with electrochemistry in a flow cell. Thus we have established access to the dynamics of various oxidized and reduced molecular species in solution. We investigate the photophysics of a tetraphenoxy-substituted perylene bisimide dye and its reduced species as a proof of principle and find substantially different dynamics for the neutral and the twofold reduced compound. The electrochemical flow cell is furthermore applied in conventional transient absorption spectroscopy and photoluminescence spectroscopies as an application in different setups.

Keywords: Coherent two-dimensional spectroscopy; Flow electrolysis cell; Perylene bisimide dye; Spectroelectrochemistry.