PHOTODISSOCIATION OF COPPER HEXAFLUOROACETYLACETONATE IN THE CHARGE-TRANSFER ABSORPTION REGION

The combination of ultraviolet laser photolysis and vacuum ultraviolet photoionization with time-of-flight mass spectrometry experimentally identifies the primary products of 222- and 252-nm photodissociation of copper hexafluoroacetylacetonate, Cu(hfac)2, in a molecular beam. The photolysis produces extensive ligand fragmentation and results in a number of different copper-containing species. One of the fragments, Cu(hfac), appears over a period of about a microsecond after the photolysis pulse. None of the fragments has a large translational energy. For example, about 2% of the available energy appears as kinetic energy of the Cu(hfac) fragment. The extensive ligand loss and slow decay are consistent with ligand fragmentation causing large contaminations in photolytically deposited Cu films from Cu(hfac)2 and caged recombination inhibiting photoreduction of Cu(hfaC)2 in solution.