S Nagakura

Biography

The concept of intramolecular charge-transfer was proposed by Nagakura in 1954 and has been applied to systematic interpretation of electronic spectra of unsaturated organic molecules, inorganic ions, and metal complexes and also of electronic dipole moments, reactivities, and other properties of excited molecules. Electron donor-acceptor complexes formed through intermolecular charge-transfer interactions have been extensively studied by him. The charge-transfer triplet state was found by him and this is the most direct evidence for Mulliken's charge-transfer theory. To substantiate the charge- transfer theory of aromatic substitution, reaction mechanisms have been studied for many organic reaction by detecting intermediates. Magnetic field effects on photochemical reactions in solution and on emission from excited singlet states of gaseous molecules were observed for the first time by Nagakura and their mechanisms have been investigated with the aid of time-resolved spectroscopy, radical-pair model theory, and magnetically induced level interactions.

Research Interest

Molecular Science