Intramolecular charge transfer and thermal exciplex dissociation with p-aminobenzonitriles in toluene

Abstract

The rate constants of the reversible intramolecular excited-state charge-transfer (CT) reaction of 4-(dimethylamino)benzonitrile (DMABN;I) in toluene were determined as a function of temperature, from double-exponential fluorescence decays measured by time-correlated single-photon counting. The same decay times were found for the locally excited (LE) and the CT state, as shown by global analysis. For the CT state, the stabilization enthalpy {Delta}H ({minus}6 kJ mol{sup {minus}1}) and the change in entropy {Delta}S ({minus}24 J K{sup {minus}1} M{sup {minus}1}) were determined. A correlation of the charge-transfer time of DMABN with the longitudinal dielectric relaxation time was not observed. The presence of dimers or solute/solvent complexes in the ground state was excluded by {sup 1}H NMR experiments. A reversible excited-state reaction was shown to occur in toluene for the planar molecules 1-methyl-5-cyanoindoline (NMCI; II) and 1-methyl-6-cyano-1,2,3,4-tetrahydroquinoline (NMCQ;III) as well as for 3,5-dimethyl-4-(dimethylamino)benzonitrile (DMADBN;IV), based on the wavelength dependence of the double-exponential fluorescence decays. Such a dependence was not found for N-methyl-4-aminobenzonitrile (MABN; IH), 4-aminobenzonitrile (ABN; IHH), and 3,5-dimethyl-4-aminobenzonitrile (ADBN; IVHH), which is attributed to an increase in energy of the CT state relative to the LE state in these secondary and primary aromatic amines.