Radiationless Deactivation Process of 1-Dimethylamino-9-fluorenone Induced by Conformational Relaxation in the Excited State: A New Model Molecule for the TICT Process

Abstract

The deactivation process of excited 1-(dimethylamino)-9-fluorenone (1-DMAF) was investigated by means of steady-state and time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy. Fluorescence decay profiles for 1-DMAF, which has a relatively short lifetime (several tens of picoseconds in low viscosity solvents at ambient temperature) are much affected by the fluidity of the surrounding solvent. The lifetimes increase in glassy solvents at 77 K as well as with increasing viscosity. These results indicate that conformational relaxation by the dimethylamino group plays an important role in the deactivation process of 1-DMAF. Detailed analysis of the temperature dependence of the fluorescence lifetime revealed that the conformational relaxation process has a very small intramolecular activation barrier (5.4 kJ/mol). Results of MO calculations suggest that the dimethylamino moiety of 1-DMAF is pretwisted in the ground state and that the most stable structure in the excited state is a twisted intramolecular charge transfer (TICT) state. 1-DMAF could be a new model molecule that exhibits the TICT phenomena.