Organometallic photochemistry: The study of short-lived intermediates

The photochemistry of organometallic compounds is a new and exciting resear ch area finding applications in synthetic and industrial chemistry. Photoch emical processes involve the generation of molecules in excited states and the formation of highly reactive short lived intermediates. This Comment ou tlines the experimental techniques available for studying these transient i ntermediates and discusses the advantages and disadvantages of each one. Th e applications of these techniques to the study of fundamental photoprocess es 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 inves tigation of excited slates of organometallics is also discussed.