Journal
JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY LETTERS
Volume 5, Issue 14, Pages 2464-2468Publisher
AMER CHEMICAL SOC
DOI: 10.1021/jz501140b
Keywords
-
Categories
Funding
- The Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO)
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Sunscreens are aimed at providing protection from solar UV radiation. However, the same mechanism that underlies this protection (absorption of UV radiation) is also responsible for their light-induced adverse effects. Here, high-resolution spectroscopic methods are applied to one of the most commonly used sunscreen chromophores to study the excited-state dynamics that determine the delicate balance between favorable and adverse effects. In contrast to common belief, we find that excitation to the bright pi pi* state does not directly lead to repopulation of the electronic ground state. Instead, internal conversion to another electronically excited state identified as the dark n pi* state is a major decay pathway that impedes fast energy dissipation. Microsolvation studies of sunscreen chromophores with water demonstrate that under such conditions, this bottleneck is no longer present. These observations could be a first step toward the development of sunscreens with improved photochemical properties.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available