Disentangling Time Scales of Vibrational Cooling, Solvation, and Hydrogen Bond Reorganization Dynamics Using Ultrafast Transient Infrared Spectroscopy of Formylperylene.

Unraveling dynamics of solvation and hydrogen bond (H-bond) reorganization between a solute and solvent is crucial to understand the importance of specific and nonspecific interactions in a solution-phase chemical reaction. Ultrafast time-resolved infrared (TRIR) spectroscopy provides direct opportunity to monitor site-specific intermolecular dynamics on a real-time scale by probing vibrational marker bands in the excited state of a solute. Herein, we report the real-time dynamics of vibrational cooling, solvation, and hydrogen bond reorganization of formylperylene (FPe) through TRIR spectroscopy of carbonyl (C═O) stretching mode in nonpolar, polar aprotic, and polar protic solvents. High sensitivity of the C═O stretch frequency (υ̅