@Article{TheJPhysChemA_116_9473, author = {A. Rosspeintner and G. Angulo and E. Vauthey}, title = {{Driving Force Dependence of Charge Recombination in Reactive and Nonreactive Solvents}}, journal= {The J. Phys. Chem. A}, ISSN = {1089-5639}, volume= {116}, number= {38}, pages = {9473-9483}, url = {http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/jp306629v}, eprint= {http://www.unige.ch/sciences/chifi/publis/refs_pdf/ref01316.pdf}, doi= {10.1021/jp306629v}, abstract = {{This study addresses the free energy dependence of charge recombination following photoinduced bimolecular electron transfer in three different solvents of either inert (acetonitrile and benzyl acetate) or reactive ({\em N},{\em N}-dimethylaniline) character. Femtosecond time-resolved fluorescence and transient absorption have been used to determine the time scales for charge recombination. In pure {\em N},{\em N}-dimethylaniline, charge recombination is found to be substantially slower than charge separation in a range of driving forces covering 1.5 eV. In all three solvents, the so-called Marcus inverted region is clearly observed for charge recombination. Additionally, the charge recombination step is found to be influenced by the solvent relaxation dynamics. A diffusion-reaction equation approach using an electron transfer model accounting for solvent relaxation is used to rationalize the experimental results.}}, year = {2012} }