Knowledge Bank

The photodissociation mechanism of copper (II) chloro complexes in methanol is studied by means of ultrafast broadband time-resolved deep-UV/UV/vis spectroscopy using $[CuII(MeOH)5Cl]+$ as a model molecule. Upon 255 nm excitation, the majority of $[CuII(MeOH)5Cl]+$ dissociate to form chlorine atoms $Cl.$ and penthacoordinate copper(I) solvated complexes $[CuI(MeOH)5]+$, which is followed by recombination back to the parent molecules. A three body-disscoation in which the nascent $[CuI(MeOH)5]+$ fragment undergoes a methanol-ligand loss is observed to be of minor importance. The solvent influence on the photoreaction will be discussed.