Photochemistry of Dithiocarbamate Cu(II) Complex in CCl₄

Laser pulse photolysis was used to study the nature and reactions of intermediates in the photochemistry of the flat dithiocarbamate complex Cu(Et(2)dtc)(2) in CCl(4). A nanosecond laser pulse (355 nm) is shown to induce intermediate absorption bands of bivalent copper complex whose coordination sphere contains a dithiocarbamate radical Et(2)dtc(•) and a chloride ion at the axial position ([(Et(2)dtc)Cu(Et(2)dtc(•))Cl(a)]). At room temperature during some microseconds after the laser pulse, this intermediate interacts with the initial complex to form presumably a dimer [Cu(2)(Et(2)dtc)(3)(Et(2)dtc(•))Cl]. The latter vanishes in the second-order reaction. Analysis of kinetic and spectral features gives the arguments for the formation of a cluster [Cu(2)(Et(2)dtc)(3)Cl-tds-Cu(2)(Et(2)dtc)(3)Cl], which produces a new absorption band at 345 nm. The cluster decomposes in ∼5 ms into final products, a binuclear complex [Cu(2)(Et(2)dtc)(3)Cl] and tetraethylthiuramdisulfide (Et(4)tds).