Internal conversion (chemistry)

[citation needed] The excited molecule can de-excite by increasing the thermal energy of the surrounding solvated ions.

This ability to transform the excitation energy of photon into heat can be a crucial property for photoprotection by molecules such as melanin.

[2] Fast internal conversion reduces the excited state lifetime, and thereby prevents bimolecular reactions.

[citation needed] Nucleic acids (precisely the single, free nucleotides, not those bound in a DNA/RNA strand) have an extremely short lifetime due to a fast internal conversion.

[citation needed] In applications that make use of bimolecular electron transfer the internal conversion is undesirable.