期刊名称：Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
印刷版ISSN：0027-8424
电子版ISSN：1091-6490
出版年度：1978
卷号：75
期号：1
页码：30-33
DOI：10.1073/pnas.75.1.30
语种：English
出版社：The National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
摘要：The chemcial mechanism for formatin of electronically excited-state molecules from the thermal reaction of dimethyldioxetanone was studied. Light production in the presence of certain easily oxidized aromatic hydrocarbons was found not to conform to the classical mechanistic schemes for chemiexcitation. Detailed investigation of the dioxetanone system revealed light formation by the recently discovered, chemically initiated electron-exchange process. This result is extrapolated to bioluminescent systems. In particular, the key high-energy molecule involved in firefly luminescence, which has been identified as a dioxetanone, is postulated to form excited states as a result of intramolecular electron transfer from the phenoxythiazole moiety to the dioxetanone. Subsequent rapid decarboxylation results in direct formation of an excited single state of the emitting amide.
