We study reactive intermediates such as carbenes, nitrenes, radicals, biradicals and radical ions. The intermediates are generated by photolysis of precursors prepared by custom synthesis. The intermediates are generated in Argon matrices and studied by IR, UV-Vis and fluorescence spectroscopy. The spectra are fit to high level ab initio calculations in collaboration with Professor Hadad. Reactive intermediates are studied in the liquid phase by laser flash photolysis with 0.1 ns time resolution. This allows us to measure absolute lifetimes and deduce reaction mechanisms. Our findings are of basic scientific interest and have practical value in photomedicine.
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