Homomorphic solvatochromic probes

A solvatochromic scale, based on the ultraviolet-visible, rather than the infrared, spectral band of suitable probes is that based on the Kamlet -Taft P parameter. This is again an averaged quantity, for which the wavenumber shifts of several protic indicators relative to structurally similar but aprotic homomorphs are used (Kamlet et al. 1983 Kamlet and Taft 1976). It is assumed that the nonspecific effect of a solvent on the protic probe is the same as that on the aprotic one, and that it can be expressed in terms of the n parameter for the solvent, so that the donicity of the solvent, if it is a Lewis base, causes the difference between the responses of the two probes towards the solvent. The probes originally employed were 4-nitrophenol (vs 4-nitroanisole) and 4-nitroaniline (vs 4-nitroN,N-diethylaniline), but once a n scale is known, the need for the specific aprotic homomorph values no longer exists, since the general expression ... 

Finally, the ambitious approach of Catalan et al. to introduce complete new comprehensive scales of solvent dipolarity/polarizabihty [SPP scale), solvent basicity SB scale), and solvent acidity SA scale) must be mentioned [296, 335-337]. These three UV/Vis spectroscopic scales are based on carefully selected positively solvatochromic and homomorphic pairs of probe dyes and include values for about 200 organic solvents for a recent review, see reference [296]. The molecular structures of the three pairs of homomorphic indicator dyes proposed are as follows ... 

Kauffman and coworkers118 119 tried to fit the solvatochromic shifts of l-(9-anthryl)-3-(4-/V,/V-dimcthylanilino)propanc (83), relative to the hydrocarbon homomorph with the dimethylamino group replaced by H, to the dielectric non-ideality of solvent mixtures involving hexane with ethanol, tetrahydrofuran and dichloromethane. The shifts were not linear with the mole fraction of the polar component, and Suppan s theory of dielectric enrichment was applied to the data. It was found that the dielectric enrichment that can be calculated from the relative permittivities of the components and of the mixtures is not sufficient to account for the observed solvatochromic shifts, but that preferential solvation of the probe by the polar component is superimposed on this dielectric effect. Earlier,... 

Compound 4, which displays large positive solvatochromic shifts and good solubility in a wide range of solvents, was proposed as a 7i probe.Another example involves the homomorphic pair 2-(dimethylamino)-7-nitrofluorene (S)/2-fluoro-7-nitrofluorene that were sug-... 

Obviously, the differenee between the solvatochromism of DMANF and FNF will cancel many of the spurious effects involved in measurements of solvent polarity. Because the envelopes of the first absorption bands for FNF and DMANF are identical (see Figure 1 in ref 15), one of the most common sources of error in polarity scales is thus avoided. The polarity of a solvent on the SPP scale is given by the difference between the solvatochromism of the probe DMANF and its homomorph FNF [Av(solvent) = VpNp -Vdmanf] and can be evaluated on a fixed scale from 0 for the gas phase (i.e., the absence of solvent) to 1 for DMSO, using the following equation ... 

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