Molecular features in complex environment: Cooperative team players during excited state bond cleavage

Photoinduced bond cleavage is often employed for the generation of highly reactive carbocations in solution and to study their reactivity. Diphenylmethyl derivatives are prominent precursors in polar and moderately polar solvents like acetonitrile or dichloromethane. Depending on the leaving group, the photoinduced bond cleavage occurs on a femtosecond to picosecond time scale and typically leads to two distinguishable products, the desired diphenylmethyl cations (Ph2CH(+)) and as competing by-product the diphenylmethyl radicals ([Formula: see text]). Conical intersections are the chief suspects for such ultrafast branching processes. We show for two typical examples, the neutral diphenylmethylchloride (Ph2CH-Cl) and the charged diphenylmethyltriphenylphosphonium ions ([Formula: see text]) that the role of the conical intersections depends not only on the molecular features but also on the interplay with the environment. It turns out to differ significantly for both precursors. Our analysis is based on quantum chemical and quantum dynamical calculations. For comparison, we use ultrafast transient absorption measurements. In case of Ph2CH-Cl, we can directly connect the observed signals to two early three-state and two-state conical intersections, both close to the Franck-Condon region. In case of the [Formula: see text], dynamic solvent effects are needed to activate a two-state conical intersection at larger distances along the reaction coordinate.