The excited-state dynamics of the push–pull azobenzene Methyl Orange (MO) were investigated in several solvents and water/glycerol mixtures using a combination of ultrafast time-resolved fluorescence and transient absorption in both the UV-visible and the IR regions, as well as quantum chemical calculations. Optical excitation of MO in its trans form results in the population of the S₂ ππ* state and is followed by internal conversion to the S₁ nÏ€* state in ∼50 fs. The population of this state decays on the sub-picosecond timescale by both internal conversion to the trans ground state and isomerisation to the cis ground state. Finally, the cis form converts thermally to the trans form on a timescale ranging from less than 50 ms to several minutes. Significant differences depending on the hydrogen-bond donor strength of the solvents, quantified by the Kamlet Taft parameter α, were observed: compared to the other solvents, in highly protic solvents (α > 1), (i) the viscosity dependence of the S₁ state lifetime is less pronounced, (ii) the S₁ state lifetime is shorter by a factor of ≈1.5 for the same viscosity, (iii) the trans-to-cis photoisomerisation efficiency is smaller, and (iv) the thermal cis-to-trans isomerisation is faster by a factor of ≥10³. These differences are explained in terms of hydrogen-bond interactions between the solvent and the azo nitrogen atoms of MO, which not only change the nature of the S₁ state but also have an impact on the shape of ground- and excited-state potentials, and, thus, affect the deactivation pathways from the excited state.

We report that anion−π and cation−π interactions can occur on the same aromatic surface. Interactions of this type are referred to as ion pair−π interactions. Their existence, nature, and significance are elaborated in the context of spectral tuning, ion binding in solution, and activation of cell-penetrating peptides. The origin of spectral tuning by ion pair−π interactions is unraveled with energy-minimized excited-state structures: The solvent- and pH-independent red shift of absorption and emission of push–pull fluorophores originates from antiparallel ion pair−π attraction to their polarized excited state. In contrast, the complementary parallel ion pair−π repulsion is spectroscopically irrelevant, in part because of charge neutralization by intriguing proton and electron transfers on excited push–pull surfaces. With time-resolved fluorescence measurements, very important differences between antiparallel and parallel ion pair−π interactions are identified and quantitatively dissected from interference by aggregation and ion pair dissociation. Contributions from hydrogen bonding, proton transfer, π–π interactions, chromophore twisting, ion pairing, and self-assembly are systematically addressed and eliminated by concise structural modifications. Ion-exchange studies in solution, activation of cell-penetrating peptides in vesicles, and computational analysis all imply that the situation in the ground state is complementary to spectral tuning in the excited state; i.e., parallel rather than antiparallel ion pair−π interactions are preferred, despite repulsion from the push–pull dipole. The overall quite complete picture of ion pair−π interactions provided by these remarkably coherent yet complex results is expected to attract attention throughout the multiple disciplines of chemistry involved.

A protected S-acetylthio porphyrin was synthesized and attached to the Au₃₈(2-phenylethanethiolate)₂₄ cluster in a ligand exchange reaction. Chiral high performance liquid chromatography of the functionalized cluster yielded enantiomeric pairs of clusters probably differing in the binding site of the porphyrin. As proven by circular dichroism, the chirality was maintained. Exciton coupling between the cluster and the chromophore is observed. Zinc can be incorporated into the porphyrin attached to the cluster, as evidence by absorption and fluorescence spectroscopy, however, the reaction is slow.Quenching of the chromophores fluorescence is observed, which can be explained by energy transfer from the porphyrin to the cluster. Transient absorption spectra on the Au₃₈(2-phenylethanethiolate)₂₄ and the functionalized cluster probe the bleach of the gold cluster due to ground state absorption and characteristic excited state absorption signals. Zinc incorporation does not have a pronounced effect on the photophysical behaviour. Decay times are typical for the molecular behaviour of small monolayer protected gold clusters.

In this report, “fluorescent flippers� are introduced to create planarizable push–pull probes with the mechanosensitivity and fluorescence lifetime needed for practical use in biology. Twisted push–pull scaffolds with large and bright dithienothiophenes and their S,S-dioxides as the first “fluorescent flippers� are shown to report on the lateral organization of lipid bilayers with quantum yields above 80% and lifetimes above 4 ns. Their planarization in liquid-ordered (L_o) and solid-ordered (S_o) membranes results in red shifts in excitation of up to +80 nm that can be transcribed into red shifts in emission of up to +140 nm by Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET). These unique properties are compatible with multidomain imaging in giant unilamellar vesicles (GUVs) and cells by confocal laser scanning or fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy. Controls indicate that strong push–pull macrodipoles are important, operational probes do not relocate in response to lateral membrane reorganization, and two flippers are indeed needed to “really swim,� i.e., achieve high mechanosensitivity.

The electronic absorption spectrum of 3-hydroxyflavone (3HF) in various solvents exhibits a long-wavelength (LW) band, whose origin has been debated. The excited-state dynamics of neutral and basic solutions of 3HF in alcohols upon excitation in this LW band has been investigated using a combination of fluorescence up-conversion and transient electronic and vibrational absorption spectroscopies. The ensemble of results reveals that, in neutral solutions, LW excitation results in the population of two excited species with similar fluorescence spectra but very different lifetimes, namely 40–100 ps and 2–3 ns, depending on the solvent. In basic solutions, the relative concentrations of these species change considerably in favor of that with the short-lived excited state. On the basis of the spectroscopic data and quantum chemistry calculations, the short lifetime is attributed to the excited state of 3HF anion, whereas the long one is tentatively assigned to an excited hydrogen-bonded complex with the solvent. Excited-state intermolecular proton transfer from the solvent to the anion yielding the tautomeric form of 3HF is not operative, as the excited anion decays to the ground state via an efficient nonradiative transition.

The dynamics of photoinduced electron transfer between polar acceptors and donors has been investigated in apolar solvents using femtosecond-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy. It was found to be ultrafast and to continuously accelerate by varying the excitation wavelength from the maximum to the red edge of the absorption band of the acceptor, the overall difference being as large as a factor 4–5. This violation of the Kasha–Vavilov rule is explained by a correlation between the composition of the acceptor environment and its transition energy, that is, the more donors around an acceptor, the longer its absorption wavelength, and the faster the quenching. Because of preferential solvation, this dependence is already observed at low quencher concentrations. This effect, which requires quenching to be faster than the fluctuations of the environment composition, should be quite general for photoinduced charge transfer processes in low-polarity, viscous, or rigid media, such as those used in organic optoelectronic devices.

The excited-state dynamics of rhodamine 6G (R6G) has been investigated in aqueous solution using ultrafast transient absorption spectroscopy and at the dodecane/water interface using the femtosecond time-resolved surface second harmonic generation (SSHG) technique. As the R6G concentration exceeds ca. 1 mM in bulk water, both R6G monomers and aggregates are excited to a different extent when using pump pulses at 500 and 530 nm. The excited-state lifetime of the monomers is shortened compared to dilute solutions because of the occurrence of excitation energy transfer to the aggregates, which themselves decay nonradiatively to the ground state with a ca. 70 ps time constant. At the dodecane/water interface, both monomers and aggregates contribute to the SSHG signal to an extent that depends on the bulk concentration, the pump and probe wavelengths, and the polarization of probe and signal beams. The excited-state lifetime of the monomers at the interface is of the order of a few picoseconds even at bulk concentrations where it is as large as several nanoseconds. This is explained by the relatively high interfacial affinity of R6G that leads to a large interfacial concentration, favoring aggregation and thus rapid excitation energy transfer from monomers to aggregates.

The dynamics of bimolecular photoinduced electron-transfer reactions has been investigated with three donor/acceptor (D/A) pairs in tetrahydrofuran (THF) and acetonitrile (ACN) using a combination of ultrafast spectroscopic techniques, including time-resolved infrared absorption. For the D/A pairs with the highest driving force of electron transfer, all transient spectroscopic features can be unambiguously assigned to the excited reactant and the ionic products. For the pair with the lowest driving force, three additional transient infrared bands, more intense in THF than in ACN, with a time dependence that differs from those of the other bands are observed. From their frequency and solvent dependence, these bands can be assigned to an exciplex. Moreover, polarization-resolved measurements point to a relatively well-defined mutual orientation of the constituents and to a slower reorientational time compared to those of the individual reactants. Thanks to the minimal overlap of the infrared signature of all transient species in THF, a detailed reaction scheme including the relevant kinetic and thermodynamic parameters could be deduced for this pair. This analysis reveals that the formation and recombination of the ion pair occur almost exclusively via the exciplex.

The excited-state dynamics of two donor–acceptor biaryls that differ by the strength of the acceptor, a pyridinium or a pyrylium moiety, have been investigated using a combination of steady-state solvatochromic absorption, ultrafast fluorescence, as well as visible and infrared transient absorption spectroscopies. The negative solvatochromic behavior of pyridinium phenolate indicates that the permanent electric dipole moment experiences a decrease upon S₁ â†� S₀ excitation, implying that the ground state possesses more zwitterionic character than the excited state. In contrast, pyrylium phenolate exhibits a weakly positive solvatochromic behavior corresponding to a small increase in the dipole moment upon excitation, implying more zwitterionic character in the excited than the ground state. Both compounds are therefore situated at different sides of the cyanine-limit structure, which has equally polar ground and excited states. Despite these differences, both molecules exhibit qualitatively similar excited-state properties. They are characterized by a very short fluorescence lifetime, increasing from about 1 to 20 ps, when varying solvent viscosity from 0.4 to 11 cP. There are, however, characteristic differences between the two compounds: The excited-state lifetimes of the pyrylium dye are shorter and also depend somewhat on polarity. The ensemble of spectroscopic data can be explained with a model where the emitting Franck–Condon excited state relaxes upon twisting around the single bond between the aryl units to a point where the excited- and ground-state surfaces are very close or intersect. After internal conversion to the ground state, the distorted molecule relaxes back to its equilibrium planar configuration, again largely dependent upon solvent viscosity. However, in this case, the kinetics for the pyrylium dye are slower than for the pyridinium dye and the polar solvent-induced acceleration is significantly stronger than in the excited state. This difference of kinetic behavior between the two compounds is a direct consequence of the change of the electronic structure from anormal to an overcritical merocyanine evidenced by steady-state spectroscopy.

The activities of our research group in the field of photoinduced electron transfer reactions are discussed and illustrated by several examples