Luminescence studies of o-hydroxy p-amino and p-dimethylamino methyl benzoate

Steady-state and time-resolved spectroscopic studies of two bisubstituted derivatives of methyl benzoate dissolved in methylcyclohexane (McH), tetrahydrofuran (THF), and ethanol (EtOH) have been performed at 293 and 77 K. The compounds under study are capable of showing multimode fluorescence emission at room temperature. The kind of emission, i.e., locally excited state emission Fl(LE), proton-transfer emission Fl(PT) and twisted intramolecular charge-transfer emission Fl(CT) dependent on the solvent. Low temperature measurements show that for those molecules a phosphorescence enhancement via a proton-transfer tunneling is observed. For the molecules under study compositeness of the emission process is explained on an energy scheme, which is based on experimentally determined and theoretically calculated data. Stated dynamic Stokes shift and phosphorescence red-edge effect indicates that both molecules form an inhomogeneous emitting system in solvents used. The experiments are supported with quantum chemical semiempirical calculations.