Photophysical behaviour of 4-(imidazole-l-yl) phenol and its complexation with β-cyclodextrin in ground and excited states

This paper mainly dwells on photophysics of 4-(imidazole-1-yl) phenol (IDP) in different solvents and temperatures from the investigations of absorption, emission and laser flash photolysis and also on the nature of complexation with beta-cyclodextrin (CD) in ground and excited states. IDP makes 1: 1 inclusion complex with beta-CD in ground, excited singlet and also in triplet states. The orientation of complex could be ascertained as imidazole moiety stays inside the cavity with phenol moiety stays in the bulk. A proposed energy level scheme unveils that vibronic interaction and spin-orbit interaction are found to be active differently in aprotic and protic solvents. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.