chemical process by which molecules are broken down into smaller units through the absorption of light. The best-known example of a photolytic process is the experimental technique known as flash photolysis, employed in the study of short-lived chemical intermediates formed in many photochemical reactions. The technique, which was developed by the English chemists R.G.W. Norrish and George Porter in 1949, consists of subjecting a gas or liquid to an intense burst of light lasting a few microseconds or milliseconds, followed by a second, ordinarily less intense flash. The first flash dissociates the absorbing compound into short-lived molecular fragments and the second flash provides a means for their identification by spectrophotometry. The method is a valuable tool for the identification of transient chemical intermediates and hence for the study of mechanisms of fast chemical reactions.
PHOTOLYSIS
Meaning of PHOTOLYSIS in English
Britannica English vocabulary. Английский словарь Британика. 2012