Acceleration of a ground-state reaction by selective femtosecond-infrared-laser-pulse excitation
IR pump - IR probe spectroscopy provides information on vibrations connected to the reaction coordinate.
Upon IR excitation of the OH stretching vibration of cyclohexanol in solution the alcoholysis reaction between cyclohexanol and phenylisocyanate was accelerated, and the urethane formation was sped up. The photoinduced urethane formation takes place on a time scale of about 10 ps.