Direct structural observation of ultrafast photoisomerization dynamics in sinapate esters

Abstract

Photoinduced isomerization reactions can be used to efficiently dissipate absorbed energy in photosystems such as molecular motors, but the ultrafast processes are challenging to characterize. Here, the authors track the formation of the E and Z isomers of ethyl sinapate in real time via transient vibrational absorption spectroscopy and find that photoinduced internal conversion occurs at multiple points along the potential energy surface.