Steady-state solvatochromism

The variations of the simulated steady state solvatochromism, as a function of the polar solvent molarity, were found to be in good agreement with the experimental work of Krolicki et al. [4], both for absorption and fluorescence. The difference of Stokes-shifts between benzene and acetonitrile is 981 cm-1, compared to 1230 cm-1 obtained experimentally. These numbers are 870 cm-1 and 1910 cm-1, respectively, for methanol. 

Steady-State Solvatochromism. The majority of the reports on supercritical fluid solvation have used steady-state solvatochromic absorbance measurements (21-28). The original aim of these experiments was to determine the solvating power of supercritical fluids for chromatography and extraction (SFC and SFE) (26,28). To quantify solvent strength, researchers (21-28) adopted the Kamlet-Taft x solvent polarity scale (50-55). This scale best correlates solvatochromic effects on a- x and x- x electronic absorption transitions. 

Time-Resolved Spectroscopy. Steady-state solvatochromic techniques provide a reasonable means to study solvation processes in supercritical media (5,17-32,43-45,59-68). But, unless the interaction rates between the solute species and the supercritical fluid are slow, these "static" methods cannot be used to study solvation kinetics. Investigation of the kinetics requires an approach that offers inherent temporal resolution. Fortunately, time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy is ideally suited for this task. 

Molecular rotors are useful as reporters of their microenvironment, because their fluorescence emission allows to probe TICT formation and solvent interaction. Measurements are possible through steady-state spectroscopy and time-resolved spectroscopy. Three primary effects were identified in Sect. 2, namely, the solvent-dependent reorientation rate, the solvent-dependent quantum yield (which directly links to the reorientation rate), and the solvatochromic shift. Most commonly, molecular rotors exhibit a change in quantum yield as a consequence of nonradia-tive relaxation. Therefore, the fluorophore s quantum yield needs to be determined as accurately as possible. In steady-state spectroscopy, emission intensity can be calibrated with quantum yield standards. Alternatively, relative changes in emission intensity can be used, because the ratio of two intensities is identical to the ratio of the corresponding quantum yields if the fluid optical properties remain constant. For molecular rotors with nonradiative relaxation, the calibrated measurement of the quantum yield allows to approximately compute the rotational relaxation rate kor from the measured quantum yield [Pg.284]

The steady-state UV-Vis spectra of functionalized l,3-dithiol-2-ylidene anthracene donor units 20-22 contained solvatochromic bands arising from ICT between the 1,3-dithiole donor and the keto, dicyanomethylene, and cyanoimine acceptor groups. Time-resolved spectroscopic studies indicated that at least two excited states may be formed on photolysis and that the lifetime of 170-400ps strongly depended on the solvent polarity <1998CEJ2580>. 

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