Excited-state intramolecular proton transfer of 2-acetylindan-1,3-dione studied by ultrafast absorption and fluorescence spectroscopy

We employ transient absorption from the deep-UV to the visible region and fluorescence upconversion to investigate the photoinduced excited-state intramolecular proton-transfer dynamics in a biologically relevant drug molecule, 2-acetylindan- 1,3-dione. The molecule is a ß-diketone which in the electronic ground state exists as exocyclic enol with an intramolecular H-bond. Upon electronic excitation at 300 nm, the first excited state of the exocyclic enol is initially populated, followed by ultrafast proton transfer (±160 fs) to form the vibrationally hot endocyclic enol. Subsequently, solvent-induced vibrational relaxation takes place (±10 ps) followed by decay (±390 ps) to the corresponding ground state. © 2015 Author(s)1561sciescopu