The role of environment in the nonradiative relaxation of the triplet state of naphthalene derivatives in solid solutions at 77 K

Abstract

The nonradiative relaxation of the triplet states of oxy-and amino-derivatives of naphthalene and conjugated ions is studied by luminescent and kinetic methods (measurements of the phosphorescence decay and of phosphorescence excitation and phosphorescence spectra) in solid solutions of ethanol-h 6, ethanol-d 6, and mixtures of toluene-h 8 with piperidine-h 11 at 77 K. It is found that, along with intramolecular factors, a microsolvate surrounding a molecule or an ion substantially affects the nonradiative relaxation. The contribution of this factor in ethanol increases in the series cation-polar molecule-anion and in mixtures of toluene with piperidine—with increasing piperidine concentration. The results are interpreted assuming the inductive-resonance dipole-dipole transfer of the triplet energy to the dipole acceptors of intramolecular bonds and bonds with molecules of the environment. The relative arrangement of hydrogen atoms of OH groups of ethanol molecules in microsolvates of cations and anions estimated using the inductive-resonance model agrees with the difference in the structure of solvates of oppositely charged ions, which is caused by the electrostatic charge-dipole interaction and the distribution of the electron density in the ground state of the corresponding emitting center. The inductive-resonance model was used for studying the features of solvation processes involving polar molecules. It is shown that the difference between the structures of microsolvates of 2-oxy-naphthalene molecules in solvents with close dipole moments (ethanol and piperidine) is mainly caused by the different ability of these solvent molecules to form associates. The structure of microsolvates of oxy-derivatives of naphthalene in the associated amphoteric solvent is found to depend on the number and position of substituents. In oxy-derivatives of naphthalene with spatially separated OH groups in ethano-d 6, deuteroexchange occurs in both substituents, whereas in the naphthalene derivative with adjacent OH groups this occurs only in one of the groups. Comparison of the phosphorescence spectra of hydrogen-bond complexes and proton-transfer complexes in nonpolar solvents at 77 K revealed the existence of molecular naphthol entities in the triplet state that were formed from ionized entities in the singlet state.