The chemistry of singlet molecular oxygen

Department of Chemistry, College of Science, Sukhadia University, Udaipur-313 001, India

Department of Chemistry, M. L. V. P.G. College, Bhilwara-311 001, India

Manuscript received 12 April 2000, revised 1 December 2000, accepted 8 December 2000

The most important but the least understood part of the oxygen cycle is the nature and interaction of oxygen with many chemical and biological systems in nature. Therefore, there is a need to understand the mechanism of oxygen involvement in such systems. Present review describes the various aspects of singlet oxygen, a high energy state of ground state oxygen. These aspects include electronic structure, generation, detection, quenching, various reactions etc.