Light induced proton transfer in dihydroxyanthraquinone as studied by photochemical hole burning

The low temperature photochemistry of dihydroxyanthraquinone in various host matrices has been studied via photochemical hole burning. It has been shown that the observed photochemistry is due to the rearrangement of protons involving both intra- and intermolecular hydrogen bonds. The model is supported by spectroscopic data on the low temperature photoproduct and by optical experiments on isotopically substituted and deprotonated samples. A brief discussion of the observed homogeneous linewidth links the optical data to possible radiationless deactivation processes (T1) or to optical dephasing processes (T2) on the time scale of several picoseconds.