Experimental and theoretical insights on the effect of solvent polarity on the photophysical properties of a benzanthrone dye

Benzanthrone derivatives show interesting solvent dependent photophysical properties. Understanding of their photophysical properties is essential for developing the fluorescence probes based on benzanthrone derivatives. The photophysical properties of 3-(N'-chlorophenyl)piperazino-7H-benzo[de]anthracen-7-one [ClPh-PBA] molecule are reported in different solvents and solvent mixtures. The change in Stokes shift, quantum yield, fluorescence life time and radiative rate constants as a function of solvent polarity shows that the Intermolecular Charge Transfer (ICT) is affected by solvent polarity and hydrogen bonding. The quantum yield and fluorescence life time values decrease and the nonradiative decay rate constant (k(nr)) values are observed to be higher in polar solvents. The weak emission of ClPh-PBA in polar solvents is primarily due to the non-radiative torsional motion of the chlorophenyl group around benzanthrone moiety. The torsional motion of chlorophenyl group at the remote nitrogen around benzanthrone moiety is also evident from TDDFT calculations performed using B3LYP/6-311+G (d, p) basis set. The ground state and excited state dipole moments, absorption and emission maxima (nm) along with other quantum chemical parameters are obtained using B3LYP/6-311+G (d, p) basis set. The experimental and theoretical results follow the similar trends. (c) 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.