Conformational control over an aldehyde fragment by selective vibrational excitation of interchangeable remote antennas

Abstract

We apply interchangeable vibrational antennas (OH or NH₂ group) to achieve unprecedented conformational control over the heavy aldehyde fragment in 2-formyl-2H-azirine. The two aldehyde conformers were manipulated bi-directionally, using selective vibrational excitation with narrowband near-infrared (NIR) light tuned at the wavenumbers corresponding to OH and NH₂ stretching overtones and combination modes.