Quantitative treatment of the solvent effects on the electronic absorption and fluorescence spectra of acridines and phenazines. The ground and first excited singlet-state dipole moments

Abstract

Electronic absorption and fluorescence excitation and emission spectra of four acridines (acridine, Acridine Yellow, 9-aminoacridine and proflavine) and three phenazines (phenazine, neutral Red and safranine) are determined at room temperature (298 K) in several solvents of various polarities (dioxane, chloroform, ethyl ether, ethyl acetate, 1-butanol, 2-propanol, ethanol, methanol, dimethylformamide, acetonitrile and dimethyl sulfoxide). The effect of the solvent upon the spectral characteristics of the above compounds, is studied. In combination with the ground-state dipole moments of these compounds, the spectral data are used to evaluate their first excited singlet-state dipole moments by means of the solvatochromic shift method (Bakhshiev's and Kawski-Chamma-Viallet's correlations). The theoretical ground and excited singlet-state dipole moments for acridines and phenazines are also calculated as a vector sum of the π-component (obtained by the PPP method) and the σ-component (obtained from σ-bond moments). For most acridines and phenazines under study, the experimental excited singlet-state dipole moments are found to be higher than their ground state counterpart. The application of the Kamlet-Abboud-Taft solvatochromic parameters to the solvent effect on spectral properties of acridine and phenazine derivatives is discussed.