Spectroscopic determination of solvation shell composition of fluorenone and 4-hydroxyfluorenone in binary solvent mixtures

Preferential solvation of fluorenone (9Fl) and 4-hydroxyfluorenone (4HOFl) in binary solvent mixtures (cyclohexane–tetrahydrofuran (CH–THF) and cyclohexane–ethanol (CH–EtOH)) has been studied using steady-state spectroscopic measurements. The solvation of the fluorenones, both in the ground and in the excited states, exhibits a non-linear solvatochromic shifts as a function of polar component in the binary solvent mixtures. The results of spectroscopic measurements were used to calculate, according to Bakhshiev's and Kiselev's theory, the fluorescence spectra of solvates having different number of polar component in the first solvation shell. The different features of fluorescence spectra of molecule under study in CH–THF and CH–EtOH are explained by the absence and presence of specific solute–solvent interactions (hydrogen bond).