Gaining Control discusses the new findings published by Stensitzki et al. in the recent issue of Nature Chemistry with the title: Acceleration of a ground-state reaction by selective femtosecond-infrared-laser-pulse excitation.

In this article the authors demonstrate acceleration of the ground-state reaction between phenylisocyanate and cyclohexanol in THF solution by IR-excitation of the cyclohexanol OH-stretching vibration. The reaction was sped up by about 25% and a pure heating mechanism could be excluded. The results show excitation of the reaction coordinate resulting in the acceleration of the reaction, pointing to a broad field of applications.