M. Horbury, L. A. Baker, Natércia d. N. Rodrigues
Apr 1, 2017
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0
Influential Citations
29
Citations
Journal
Chemical Physics Letters
Abstract
Abstract Ethyl ferulate (ethyl 4-hydroxy-3-methoxycinnamate) is currently used as a sunscreening agent in commercial sunscreen blends. Recent time-resolved gas-phase measurements have demonstrated that it possesses long-lived (>ns) electronic excited states, counterintuitive to what one might anticipate for an effective sunscreening agent. In the present work, the photodynamics of ethyl ferulate in cyclohexane, are explored using time-resolved transient electronic absorption spectroscopy, upon photoexcitation to the 11ππ∗ and 21ππ∗ states. We demonstrate that ethyl ferulate undergoes efficient non-radiative decay to repopulate the electronic ground state, mediated by trans-cis isomerization. These results strongly suggest that even mild perturbations induced by a non-polar solvent, as may be found in a closer-to-market sunscreen blend, may contribute to our understanding of ethyl ferulate’s role as a sunscreening agent.