NIR Excitation-Driven Conformational Isomerizations of Thymol and Carvacrol Isolated in a Nitrogen Cryomatrix

Key Points

• The research aims to investigate how near-infrared (NIR) excitation affects the conformational isomerizations of thymol and carvacrol.
• Isolated thymol and carvacrol in a nitrogen cryomatrix.
• Applied NIR excitation to observe isomerization dynamics.
• Analyzed torsional energy changes using spectroscopic techniques.
• NIR excitation led to significant conformational changes in both compounds.
• Thymol exhibited different energy profiles compared to carvacrol due to their structural differences.
• The isopropyl rotation in thymol was affected more markedly than in carvacrol.