Influence of imidazolium ionic liquids on fluorescence of push-pull diphenylbutadienes

• Remarkable solvatochromic emission in polar solvents and in ionic liquids due to intramolecular charge transfer.
• Excitation dependent emission behaviour of p-methoxy p-nitrodiphenylbutadiene in ethanol.
• Multi-exponential decay of the dienes reflects the propensity of their interaction with different microenvironment of ionic liquids.

A series of donor–acceptor substituted diphenylbutadienes have been synthesized and their fluorescence properties in organic solvents and imidazolium ionic liquid media were investigated. Substituted diphenylbutadienes show remarkable solvatochromic emission in polar solvents and in ionic liquids due to intramolecular charge transfer. Interestingly, diphenylbutadiene containing methoxy donor and nitro acceptor exhibits excitation dependent emission behaviour in ethanol. Excitation dependent emission studies of fluorophores in ionic liquids show distinct emission signals due to the locally excited and the charge transfer states revealing the existence of two species. Time resolved experiments show single exponential decay in organic solvents and bi-exponential decay in ionic liquids media,an indication of interaction of fluorophores with different microenvironments.

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