Ground state isomerism in betacarboline hydrogen bond complexes: The charge transfer nature of its large Stokes shifted emission

The hydrogen bonding and excited state proton transfer reactions between betacarboline, 9H-pyrido[3,4-b]indole, BC, and 1,1,1,3,3,3-hexafluoropropan-2-ol, HFIP, have been studied in the aprotic solvents cyclohexane and toluene by absorption, steady state and time resolved fluorescence measurements. On the basis of these results and those of previous works (Refs. [A. Sánchez-Coronilla, C. Carmona, M.A. Muñoz, M. Balón, Chem. Phys., 327 (2006) 70] and [A. Sánchez-Coronilla, M. Balón, M.A. Muñoz, C. Carmona, Chem. Phys. 344 (2008) 72]) two main fundamental conclusions can be drawn on the photophysical behaviour of BC. Thus, it is shown, for the first time, that the non-cyclic double hydrogen bond complexes formed through both nitrogen atoms of BC, DHB, can suffer, in their ground state, an isomerisation process. These adducts acquire a quinoid structure in cyclohexane, but maintain a dipolar zwitterionic structure in toluene. Moreover, it is concluded that the observed large Stokes shifted emission, around 520 nm, is not due, as it has been so far generally accepted, to the emission of a BC zwitterionic phototautomer, but to the intramolecular charge transfer, ICT, excited state emissions of the DHB hydrogen bond adducts.