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Updated: Apr 19, 2026

Förster Resonance Energy Transfer Mapping: A New Methodology to Elucidate Global Structural Features
Published on: March 16, 2022
Toward control of electron transfer in donor-acceptor molecules by bond-specific infrared excitation
Milan Delor1, Paul A Scattergood1, Igor V Sazanovich2
1Department of Chemistry, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S3 7HF, UK.
Abstract:
Electron transfer (ET) from donor to acceptor is often mediated by nuclear-electronic (vibronic) interactions in molecular bridges. Using an ultrafast electronic-vibrational-vibrational pulse-sequence, we demonstrate how the outcome of light-induced ET can be radically altered by mode-specific infrared (IR) excitation of vibrations that are coupled to the ET pathway. Picosecond narrow-band IR excitation of high-frequency bridge vibrations in an electronically excited covalent trans-acetylide platinum(II) donor-bridge-acceptor system in solution alters both the dynamics and the yields of competing ET pathways, completely switching a charge separation pathway off. These results offer a step toward quantum control of chemical reactivity by IR excitation.
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