Step-Scan FTIR spectroscopy and quantum chemical calculations of xanthone in the triplet state

Step-Scan-FTIR spectroscopy has been used to measure the infrared spectrum of xanthone in the triplet state using chloroform as solvent. Xanthone is an important triplet sensitizer and therefore suitable as model system. Xanthone was excited at 266 nm and its IR triplet spectrum measured in the range 1000–1750 cm−1. The spectrum was analyzed by comparison with DFT/B3LYP/TZVP/COSMO calculations. Further on the results were compared to gas phase IR measurements of triplet xanthone and calculations of isolated xanthone. Mainly based on the calculations we tried to identify the geometry changes from the electronic ground state to the first triplet state.