Heavy-atom effect on optically excited triplet state kinetics

In several fields of research, like e.g. photosensitization, photovoltaics, organic electroluminescent devices, dynamic nuclear polarization, or pulsed dipolar electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy, triplet state kinetics play an important role. It is therefore desirable to tailor the kinetics of photoexcited triplet states, e.g. by exploiting the intramolecular heavy-atom effect, and to determine the respective kinetic parameters. In this work, we set out to systematically investigate the photoexcited triplet state kinetics of a series of haloanthracenes by time-resolved electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy in combination with synchronized laser excitation. For this purpose, a procedure to simulate time traces by solving the differential equation system governing the triplet kinetics numerically is developed. This way, spin lattice relaxation rates and zero-field triplet life times are obtained concurrently by a global fit to experimental data measured at three different cryogenic temperatures.