Irradiation of the complexes [Re(R)(CO)
3(dmb)] (R = CH
3, CD
3, Et,
iPr, or Bz; dmb = 4,4'-dimethyl-2,2'-bipyridine) into their visible absorption band gives rise to a homolytic cleavage of the Re-R bond withformation of the radicals [Re(CO)
3(dmb)]
and R
. In the case of R = Et,
iPr, or Bz this reaction proceedswith unit efficiency. The nanosecond time-resolved absorption (TA) spectra show that the long-lived (
= 7
s) [Re(CO)
3(dmb)]
radicals are formed within the 7 ns laser pulse. The CH
3 complex photodecomposeswith a quantum yield of only 0.4. The time-resolved UV-vis and IR absorption spectra reveal that this complex,after excitation into a
1MLCT state, may either pass a barrier of 1560 cm
-1 to the dissociative
3* state anddecompose into radicals or decay to the ground state via an excited-state having predominant
3MLCT statecharacter. Qualitative potential energy diagrams are presented for the two types of complexes. In a glass at80 K and in a low-temperature solution (
T < 195 K), the methyl complex is photostable, and this allowed usto study its excited-state properties with time-resolved absorption, emission, and IR spectroscopies. Accordingto these spectra the lowest-excited
3MLCT state has a significant admixture of a
* character. Finally,nanosecond time-resolved FT-EPR spectra were recorded of the CH
3 and CD
3 radicals produced by irradiationof [Re(CH
3/CD
3)(CO)
3(dmb)]. The spectra of the CH
3 radical exhibit a pronounced low-field emission/high-field absorption pattern due to an ST
0 radical pair mechanism (RPM) CIDEP effect. The occurrence of thisST
0 RPM confirms that the radicals are formed from an excited state, having spin-triplet character, in agreementwith the proposed mechanism involving a reactive
3* state.