Substituent and solvent effects on spectroscopic properties of 2-amino-1,3-dicyano-5,6,7,8-tetrahydronaphthalene derivatives

In this article, we report the photophysical properties of six, newly synthesized donor-substituted 2-amino-1,3-dicyano-5,6,7,8-tetrahydronaphthalene fluorophores. The steady-state and time-resolved spectroscopic experiments have been used to investigate the substituent and solvent effects on the locally excited (LE) and intramolecular charge transfer (ICT) emission. We demonstrate that the spectroscopic characteristics (fluorescence quantum yields, fluorescence decay times, radiative rate constants, and ground and excited state dipole moments) of the studied D-A dyes, as well as the reorganization energies characterizing the solute-solvent interactions and intramolecular torsion motions greatly depend on different substituents and microenvironment. On the basis of the experimental results and our previous quantum-chemical calculations, it was shown that two emitting charge transfer states: non-relaxed (ICT)NR and relaxed (ICT)R exist in six biphenyl derivatives dissolved in polar solvents (e.g., THF), whereas in non-polar medium (MCH) the existence of two emissive states have been attributed to non-relaxed and relaxed, locally excited state ((LE)NR, (LE)R).