The kinetics and mechanisms of reactions involving electronically excited radicals is a division of physical chemistry and high-energy chemistry, and was developed in the 1980s.

Advances in the field are closely related to the solution of fundamental problems concerning the theory of electronic structure and reactivity, as well as the practical tasks of using flash and laser light sources and the application of various materials in nuclear and aerospace engineering.

To date, an extraordinary amount of experimental data (sometimes controversial) on the reactions of electronically excited radicals has been reported in the literature. However, no attempts have been made to summarize all this material for practical use until the publication of this volume.