Ultrafast Ring Closure Reaction of Gaseous cis-Stilbene from S1(ππ*)

cis-Stilbene (cis-St) is a well-known benchmark system for cis-trans photoisomerization. cis-St also produces 4a,4b-dihydrophenanthrene (DHP) in solution with a quantum yield of less than 0.19. The ring closure reaction, however, has never been identified for gaseous cis-St, and a recent computational simulation predicted the quantum yield of DHP to be only 0.04. In the present study, we identified an ultrafast ring closure reaction of gaseous cis-St for the first time using extreme ultraviolet time -resolved photoelectron spectroscopy. Surface hopping trajectory calculations at the SA3-XMS-CASPT2(2,2) level of theory reproduce the features of the observed time-resolved photoelectron spectra and predict the cis-St:DHP:trans-St branching ratio to be 0.55:0.41:0.04, in contrast with previous estimates. The results indicate that photoexcited cis-St favors ring closure over cis-trans isomerization under the isolated condition.

Automated summary

In this study, we discovered the ultrafast ring closure reaction of gaseous cis-St for the first time using extreme ultraviolet time-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy. Previous computational simulations predicted a quantum yield of only 0.04 for the formation of 4a,4b-dihydrophenanthrene (DHP) from cis-St, but our results showed a different branching ratio of 0.55:0.41:0.04 for cis-St:DHP:trans-St.