Data for Ultrafast transient absorption spectroscopy of the sunscreen constituent ethylhexyl triazone

These large organic molecules are of increasing interest as they are suspected to be less likely to penetrate the skin than some of the smaller approved filters, thereby reducing the possible adverse effects from sunscreen products.

We apply femtosecond transient absorption spectroscopy with electronic structure calculations to unravel the complete photodeactivation mechanism that EHT undergoes after UV-B irradiation. We propose that this involves ultrafast internal conversion of the initially photoexcited n1ππ* state that couples to the ground state via a 11ππ*/S0 conical intersection, enabling multiple absorption and recovery cycles, as one would anticipate from a highly efficient filter.