Mercury-photosensitized luminescence of alcohols, ethers and amines in the liquid phase Solvent effect on the emission bands

Abstract

The liquid-phase mercury-photosensitized luminescence of water, aliphatic alcohols, ethers and amines has been investigated. The emission bands from exciplexes between an excited mercury atom and solvent molecules, obtained in solutions of mercury in water, alcohols and ethers, shift to the red as the solvent polarity increases. The emission band from an exciplex between an excited mercury atom and a tert-butylamine molecule was observed in some mixed solvents of the amine and alkanes, alcohols and ethers. This band also shifts to the red with increasing solvent polarity. The dipole moment of the amine exciplex was estimated to be ca. 2.1 × 10 −29 C m (6.5 D) from the solvatochromic shift of the exciplex emission band, assuming the cavity radius for the exciplex to be 0.40 nm.