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Updated: Jan 12, 2026

On-line Analysis of Nitrogen Containing Compounds in Complex Hydrocarbon Matrixes
Published on: August 5, 2016
Time-resolved X-ray spectroscopy of phenanthridine: elucidating the photodynamics of a nitrogen-containing polycyclic
Dorothee Schaffner1, Kira Diemer1, Xincheng Miao1
1Institute of Physical and Theoretical Chemistry, University of Würzburg Am Hubland 97074 Würzburg Germany roland.mitric@uni-wuerzburg.de ingo.fischer@uni-wuerzburg.de.
Abstract:
The photophysics and photochemistry of isolated phenanthridine have been investigated by time-resolved UV pump/X-ray probe spectroscopy at the SwissFEL free-electron laser combined with computations. Phenanthridine serves as the example for a polycyclic aromatic nitrogen-containing hydrocarbon (PANH), a class of molecules of considerable interest in material science and astrochemistry. It was excited at 268 nm into the bright 2ππ* state. The dynamics was subsequently probed by time-resolved X-ray photoelectron (TR-XPS) and X-ray absorption (TR-XAS) spectroscopy at the nitrogen 1s edge. Two time constants of τ 1 ≈ 0.3 ps and τ 2 ≈ 3 ps were determined. The excited-state dynamics was simulated using the trajectory surface hopping method and computed TR-XAS to support the band assignments. The study reveals a sequential decay to the electronic ground state via internal conversion. Spectra recorded over longer delay times indicate a dissociation on a time scale of several hundred picoseconds.
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