Detailed investigations by time-resolved transient absorption and fluorescence spectroscopies with nano- and femtosecond time resolutions are carried out with the aim of characterising the lowest excited singlet and triplet states of three ethynyl fluorenes (1-3) and three ethynyl anthracenes (4-6) in solvents of different polarity. The solvent is found to modify the deactivation pathways of the lowest excited singlet state of compounds 1-4, thus changing their fluorescence, intersystem crossing and internal conversion efficiencies. The fluorescence and triplet yields gradually decrease, while the internal conversion quantum yield increases upon increasing the solvent dielectric constant. These experimental results, coupled with the marked fluorosolvatochromic effect, point to the involvement of an emitting state with a charge-transfer (CT) character, strongly stabilised by polar solvents. This is proved by ultrafast spectroscopic studies in which two transients, distinguished by characteristic spectral shapes assigned to locally excited (LE) and CT states, are detected, the CT state being the longer lived and fluorescent one in highly polar solvents. The intramolecular LE→CT process, operative in highly polar media, becomes particularly fast (up to ≈300 fs) in the case of the NO(2) derivative 1. No push-pull character is found for 5 and 6, which exhibit different photophysical behaviour; indeed, the solvent polarity does not modify significantly the dynamics of the lowest excited singlet states. Quantum mechanical calculations at the TDDFT level are also used to determine the state order and nature of the lowest excited singlet and triplet states and to rationalise the different photophysical behaviour of fluorine and anthracene derivatives, particularly concerning the intersystem crossing process.
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