Journal of the American Chemical Society, Vol.129, No.13, 3784-3784, 2007
A direct observation of a concerted two-bond breaking reaction
We report the study of photodissociation dynamics of dimethyl sulfoxide at 200 nm using femtosecond pump-probe spectroscopy. The temporal behaviors of all major reaction products were measured. The nearly instantaneous (50 fs) appearance of the SO product strongly suggests the existence of a dissociation pathway that breaks the two equivalent S-C bonds in a concerted manner.