Rationalization of the ratio of excimer‐to‐monomer fluorescence emission intensity in bichromophoric diesters of 1‐pyrenoic acid and mono‐, di‐, tri‐, and tetraethylene glycols

Abstract

AbstractThe ratio of excimer to monomer emission intensities, denoted by ID/IM, was measured for Py–COO(CH2CH2O)mCO  Py, where Py denotes the 1‐pyrenyl group and m = 1–4, in solvents of different viscosity, η. Three different systems were used to change the viscosity of the medium: (a) Mixtures of methanol and ethylene glycol at 25°C, (b) linear aliphatic alcohols, H(CH2)nOH, where n =1–6, also at 25°C, and (c) ethylene glycol over the range 6.6–35°C. The ratio ID/IM decreases sharply as η increases, and the rate of the decrease in ID/IM is a function of m. Quantitatively, the dependence of ID/IM on η at high viscosity, i.e., the slope [d(ID/IM)/d(1/η)]∞, is larger in the present work than in another series of 1‐pyrenyl diesters in which the flexible spacer is an oligomer of polyethylene, instead of an oligomer of polyoxyethylene. In the limit where η → ∞, the ratio ID/IM assumes its largest value in the bichromophoric compound with m = 2. However, as η decreases the compound with m = 3 becomes the one with the largest ID/IM. A complete rotational isomeric state analysis (for the compounds with m = 1–3) and a Monte Carlo simulation (for the compound m = 4) of the conformations of the diesters can rationalize the behavior of ID/IM in the high viscosity limit. ©1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.