The effect of protic solvents on luminescent properties of dye molecules

The effect of a protic solvent on the spectral-luminescent properties (associated with relative energies of image and image states) of a dye molecule is considered. It is shown that generally this effect cannot be reduced to changes caused by H-bond formation, since changes caused by universal (non-specific) interactions with medium are comparable to them. It is shown that the common interpretation of the effect of protic-solvents on luminescent properties of luminophores (based on the consideration only of specific interactions) is reasonable only in case of bimolecular complexes in a non-polar solvent or in a gas phase. Neglecting the effect of non-specific (dipole–dipole) interactions is generally not reasonable.