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Transient pump–probe measurements have been made on betaine-30, the solvent polarity probe. Betaine-30 is composed of organic donor and acceptor groups, D+A-⇄kethνDA (excited state). The transient data has been analyzed to measure ket, the electron transfer (et) rate constant, in polar solvents for this inverted regime et. The observed rate constant ket,obs in various polar solvents is as much as a factor of 108 larger than is predicted by the standard, classical, implementation of the theory of Sumi and Marcus, using Kjaer and Ulstrup’s estimates for necessary parameters. In contrast, a quantum treatment of the vibrational modes by Jortner and Bixon, which includes the dynamic solvent effect, predicts that the rate should be approximately ket,JB[bar_over_tilde:_approx._equal_to]1/〈τs>. This is close to the experimental results ([bar_over_tilde:_approx._equal_to]1012 s-1) in typical polar aprotic solvents. However, in highly viscous, slowly relaxing solvents, ket,JB≪ket,obs. This is taken as evidence that the efficient coupling modes for the et in these environments is not the ‘‘conventional solvent coordinate.’’ It is shown that a hybrid of the Jortner/Bixon and Sumi/Marcus theories can physically account for the results. The kinetic behavior of betaine-30 in slowly relaxing solvents is shown to be in the ‘‘diffusionless limit’’ of the hybrid, generalized Sumi–Marcus/Jortner–Bixon picture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The inverted regime photoinduced electron transfer kinetics of betaine-30 have been investigated over a broad temperature range, revealing very little temperature dependence. For example, for betaine-30 in a polystyrene film, the electron transfer rate constant, kET, changes by less than a factor of 3 from T=293 K to T=34 K. The results are in striking contrast to predictions of contemporary electron transfer theories which employ classical nuclear modes to accept some or all of the energy of the electron transfer event. The comparison of theory and experiment for the betaines demonstrates that a full quantum mechanical theory is necessary to accurately describe the electron transfer kinetics of the betaines in environments with slow dielectric relaxation. The conclusions drawn for the betaines may also apply to other molecular examples of inverted regime electron transfer in slowly relaxing environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]