and aprotic solvents was investigated in order to study the generation of the α-anisylvinyl cations 2 by laser flash photoprotonation of the arylalkynes. Cations 2 were generated in 2,2,2-trifluoroethanol, but the excited triplet state of arylalkyne 1 was detected in the aprotic solvents dichloromethane and acetonitrile. Reaction of the cations 2 with sodium azide was investigated and found to be diffusion