Electrostatic control of spin exchange between mobile spin-correlated radical pairs created in micellar solutions

A series of photoinduced H-atom abstraction reactions between anthraquinone-2,6,-disulfonate, disodium salt (AQDS) and differently charged micellar substrates is presented. After a 248 nm excimer laser flash, the first excited triplet state of AQDS is rapidly formed and then quenched by abstraction of a hydrogen atom from the alkyl chain of the micelle surfactant, leading to a spin-correlated radical pair (SCRP). The SCRP is detected 500 ns after the laser flash using time-resolved (direct detection) electron paramagnetic resonance (TREPR) spectroscopy at X-band (9.5 GHz). By changing the charge on the surfactant headgroup from negative (sodium dodecyl sulfate, SDS) to positive (dodecyltrimethylammonium chloride, DTAC), TREPR spectra with different degrees of antiphase structure (APS) in their line shape were observed. The first derivative-like APS line shape is the signature of an SCRP experiencing an electron spin exchange interaction between the radical centers, which was clearly observable in DTAC micelles and absent in SDS micellar solutions. Solutions with surfactant concentrations well below the critical micelle concentration (cmc) or solutions where micellar formation had been disrupted (1:1 v/v CH(3)CN/H(2)O) also showed no APS line shapes in their TREPR spectra. These results support the conclusion that electrostatic forces between the sensitizer (AQDS) charge and the substrate (surfactant) headgroup charge are responsible for the observed effects. The results represent a new example of electrostatic control of a spin exchange interaction in mobile radical pairs.