Patent ID: 7597825

Claim:
A method of photostabilizing a photon excited photoactive compound that reaches a singlet excited state when exposed to UV radiation in a sunscreen composition by accepting electronic singlet excited state energy from said photon-excited photoactive compound in said composition to quench the singlet excited state energy from the photon-excited photoactive compound and transfer the singlet excited state energy from the photon-excited photoactive compound to the compound of formula (I) thereby returning the photon-excited photoactive compound to its ground state so that the photon-excited photoactive compound can absorb more photons from UV radiation light before it undergoes a photochemical reaction destructive to its UV-absorbing capability, thereby photostabilizing said photoactive compound, comprising mixing said photoactive compound with a compound of formula (I): wherein one of R 1 and R 2 is a straight or branched chain C 1 -C 12 alkoxy radical, and the non-alkoxy R 1 or R 2 is hydrogen and R 3 is a straight or branched chain C 1 -C 24 alkyl radical, and exposing the mixture to UV radiation in an amount sufficient for the photoactive compound to reach an electronic singlet excited state, whereby the compound of formula (I) accepts the singlet excited state energy from the excited photoactive compound, thereby returning the photoactive compound to its ground state so that it is capable of absorbing additional UV radiation.