Organometallic photochemistry: The study of short-lived intermediates

The photochemistry of organometallic compounds is a new and exciting research area finding applications in synthetic and industrial chemistry. Photochemical processes involve the generation of molecules in excited states and the formation of highly reactive short lived intermediates. This Comment outlines the experimental techniques available for studying these transient intermediates and discusses the advantages and disadvantages of each one. The applications of these techniques to the study of fundamental photoprocesses are illustrated by a study of the photochemistry of Fe(CO)(5), M(CO)(6) [M = Cr, Mo, W] and Mn-2(CO)(10). The use of fast spectroscopy in the investigation of excited slates of organometallics is also discussed.