Vibrationally Hot and Cold Triplets. Sensitizer-Dependent Dynamics and Localized Vibrational Promotion of a Di-π-methane Rearrangement.

Large intramolecular ¹³ C kinetic isotope effects (KIEs) for the di-π-methane rearrangement of benzobarrelene fit with statistical expectations from heavy-atom tunneling when a low-energy sensitizer is employed, but much lower KIEs are observed with higher-energy sensitizers. These results in combination with trajectory studies suggest that the excess vibrational energy available from triplet energy transfer leads to hot and nonstatistical dynamics in the rearrangement.