Charge Transfer in Excited Donor‐acceptor Phenothiazine Derivatives

Abstract

AbstractA series of N‐bonded donor‐acceptor derivatives of phenothiazine containing phenyl (PHPZ), anisyl (ANPZ), pyridyl (PYPZ), naphthyl (NAPZ), acetylphenyl (APPZ), and cyanophenyl (CPPZ) as an electron acceptor have been synthesized. Their photophysical properties were investigated in solvents of different polarities by absorption and emission techniques. These studies clearly revealed the existence of an intramolecular charge transfer (ICT) excited state in the latter four compounds. The solvent dependent Stokes shift values were analyzed by the modified Lippert‐Mataga equation to obtain the excited state dipole moment values. The large excited state dipole moment suggests that the full (or nearly full) electron transfer take place in the A‐D systems. In the system of A‐D phenothiazine derivatives, the transition dipole moments Mflu were determined mainly by direct interactions between the solvent‐equilibrated fluorescence 1CT state and ground state because of their lack of significant change with increase of the solvent polarity. The electron structure and molecular conformation of phenothiazine derivatives will be significantly changed with the increase of the electron affinity of the N‐10 substituent.