THE ROLE OF INTERSYSTEM CROSSING STEPS IN SINGLET OXYGEN CHEMISTRY AND PHOTO-OXIDATIONS

Article abstract of DOI:10.1016/S0040-4020(01)96579-2

Singlet oxygen chemistry and photo-oxidation reactions, in general, often require one or more critical reaction steps that involve an intersystem crossing from a singlet state to a triplet state or vice versa.This paper considers two important intersystem crossing mechanisms, electron spin-electron orbit (spin-orbit) coupling and electron spin-nuclear spin (spin-spin) coupling, and how they may be involved: (1) in the deactivation of ¹O2 to ³O2; (2) in the thermal catalytic conversion of ³O2 to ¹O2; and (3) in the fragmentation of aromatic endoperoxides to yield O2 and an aromatic substrate.