Matrix Isolation Spectroscopy; Radical Ions; Closed-shell ions; Radicals; Biradicals; Quantum chemical modelling
Bally Thomas (2016), Electron-Transfer-Induced Tautomerizations, in Antonov Liudmil (ed.), Wiley-VCH, Weinheim, 75-94.
Bally Thomas (2016), Unusual Rearrangements of Radical Cations: The Role of Vibronic Coupling, in
Chimia, 70, 164-171.
Li Zhe, Bally Thomas, Houk Kendall E., Borden Weston T. (2016), Variations in Rotational Barriers of Allyl and Benzyl Cations, Anions, and Radicals, in
Journal of Organic Chemistry, 81, 9576-9584.
Monney Nicolas P.-A., Bally Thomas, Giese Bernd (2015), Electronic Structure of Hole-Conducting States in Polyprolines, in
Journal of Physical Chemistry B, 119, 6584-6590.
Bloch-Mechkour Anna, Bally Thomas (2015), Electromers of the benzene dimer radical cation, in
PCCP, 17, 10624-10629.
Monney Nicolas P:-A., Bally Thomas, Yamamoto Takuhei, Glass Richard S. (2015), Spectroscopic Evidence for Through-Space Arene−Sulfur−Arene Bonding Interaction in m‐Terphenyl Thioether Radical Cations, in
Journal of Physical Chemistry A, 119, 12990-12998.
C. Storz M. Badoux C. M. Hauke T. Solomek T. Bally and A. F. M. Kilbinger (2014), One-Pot Synthesis and AFM Imaging of a Triangular Aramide Macrocycle, in
Journal of the American Chemical Society, 136(?), 12832-12825.
Monney Nicolas P.-A., Bally Thomas, Giese Bernd (2014), Proline as a charge stabilizing amino acid in peptide radical cations, in
Journal of Physical Organic Chemistry, 28, 347-353.
Tomas Solomek Christian G. Bochet and Thomas Bally* (2014), The Primary Steps in Excited-State Hydrogen Transfer: The Phototautomerization of o-Nitrobenzyl Derivatives, in
Chemistry, a European Journal , 20(?), 8062-8067.
Vladimir Misic Krzyzsztof Piech and Thomas Bally (2013), Carbocations Generated under Stable Conditions by Ionization of Matrix-Isolated Radicals: The Allyl and Benzyl Cations, in
J. Am. Chem. Soc., 135, 8625-8631.
Nicolas P.-A. Monney Thomas Bally* Ganga S. Bhagavathy and Richard S. Glass (2013), Spectroscopic Evidence for a New Type of Bonding between a Thioether Radical Cation and a Phenyl Group, in
Org. Lett. , 15(19), 4932-4935.
Krzysztof Piech and Thomas Bally (2013), The Bisketene Radical Cation and its Formation by Oxidative Ring-Opening of Cyclobutenedione., in
J. Org. Chem. , 78, 2908-2913.
Krzysztof Piech Thomas Bally Takatoshi Ichino and John Stanton, Vibronic Spectra of the p-Benzoquinone Radical Anion and Cation: A Matrix Isolation and Computational Study, in
Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys.
The ability to predict and control the outcome of chemical reactions, be it in biology or technology, frequently requires knowledge of the key reaction intermediates. The present research project focusses on the study of such fleeting species (primarily charged and uncharged radicals as well as closed-shell ions) under conditions where they persist sufficiently long to be probed by conventional spectroscopic means. To this end, suitable precursors are embedded in inert solid media at low temperature where the targeted reactive intermediates may then be generated by photolsis or radiolysis of these precursors. Another approach, mainly for radicals, consists in the pyrolysis of suitable precursors, which has the advantage that the two fragments end up in different matrix cavities and can thus not recombine. The electronic and vibrational spectra of the resulting species contain information that is used to confirm or reject hypotheses with regard to the identity and the structure of reactive intermediates. In addition, their reactivity can be probed by allowing them to rearrange, either by slightly raising the temperature or by exposing them to light at selected wavelengths, or by letting them engage in bimolecular reactions with suitable small reactants with which the host material is doped. A common feature of all projects is, that the experimental work is invariably accompanied by quantum chemical model calculations which serve on the one hand to interpret the spectroscopic observations and on the other hand to shed light on the reactivity of the observed species. Much of the insight obtained in this project arises from a synergy betwen experimental and theoretical approaches.