Kinetics of photochemical reactions in condensed phases - What can be borrowed from methods of dielectric physics

Methods, commonly used to analyze relaxations in dielectrics in the time do main, have been adapted to study kinetics of chemical reactions in solids. In particular, the effect of distributed parameters on the reaction kinetic s was taken into consideration. Simple methods, allowing for a straightforw ard determination of the kinetic parameters, have been put forward and appl ied to interpret experimental results obtained on a series of crown ethers, with a photoactive azobenzene moiety incorporated in the molecules, disper sed in polymer matrices.