This presentation will describe our home built laser based photolysis system coupled into a 600 MHz NMR spectrometer. The system is based on a powerful excimer laser system (~8 W @ 248 nm) and uses through space optical guiding1 to deliver the light directly into the sample placed in an unmodified spectrometer/probe combination. Technical and safety issues for running the apparatus in a shared laboratory environment will be discussed.
Applications of our laser photolysis system to study short-lived molecules will be described. This will include observing reactive organometallic compounds such as [(arene)W(CO)2(alkane)]2 and short lived organic reactive intermediates.