Photophysics of 4-dimethylamino-4′-cyanostilbene and 4-azetidinyl-4′-cyanostilbene. Time-resolved fluorescence and trans-cis photoisomerisation Original Research Article

The fluorescence decays of trans-4-dimethylamino-4′-cyanostilbene (DCS) and trans-4-azetidinyl-4′-cyanostilbene (ACS) in an unpolar (n-heptane) and a polar (acetonitrile) solvent are single exponential down to a time resolution of around 5 ps and dual fluorescence is not observed. The dipole moment increases in two steps: from 7 D in the ground state via 13 D (DCS) or 10 D (ACS) for the Franck-Condon excited state to 21 D (DCS) or 22 D (ACS) for the relaxed fluorescing CT state. This means that the intramolecular charge transfer (ICT) in the excited state at most involves an intermediate with a subpicosecond lifetime. The presence of the azetidinyl group in ACS does not slow down the ICT reaction, contrary to what has been found for the 4-aminobenzonitriles, showing that inversion of the amino group is not an important reaction coordinate here. The activation energy Etc for trans-cis photoisomerisation is determined from the fluorescence decays in n-heptane (14.0 kJ/mol, DCS) and in acetonitrile (22.7 kJ/mol, DCS and 22.5 kJ/mol, ACS). This increase of Etc with solvent polarity, opposite to what has been found for trans-stilbene, shows that the photoisomerisation transition state is less polar than the CT state.