How transient photoconductivity reveals significant features of the reduction of ground-state aromatic ketones by amino-alkyl radicals through a thermal electron-transfer process

The rate constants kred of the thermal electron-transfer reaction between several aminoalkyl radicals and two ground-state aromatic ketones, benzophenone (BP) and thioxanthone (TX), were measured by nanosecond transient photoconductivity in acetonitrile. The kred values were strongly at variance from those expected from the free energy change ΔGred of the reaction within the framework of the Marcus' theory of electron transfer. Moreover, addition of small amounts of water in acetonitrile strongly enhanced kred and the ion quantum yield. These results were rationalized by invoking a 1 : 1 complex formation between amino-alkyl radicals and water, and semi-empirical AM1 calculations were used to sustain this explanation.