PULSED INFRARED LASER-INDUCED ORGANIC-CHEMICAL REACTIONS

This article is a brief introduction/review for non-laser chemists of the application of intense, pulsed infrared laser radiation to organic molecules. The topics discussed demonstrate that pulsed infrared laser radiation in many instances is a unique method of inducing or augmenting organic reactions and does not merely resemble conventional heating processes. Examples are presented of laser-specific molecular selectivity, laser-controlled chemical equilibria, inducement of the high energy reaction channel in bifunctional reactants, sensitized organic reactions, and reactions in solids and at gas-solid interfaces.