Properties of the intramolecular excited charge-transfer states of donor-acceptor phenothiazine derivatives

A series of N-bonded donor-acceptor derivatives of phenothiazine containing benzene (PHPZ), anisole (ANPZ), pyridine (PYPZ), naphthalene (NAPZ), acetophenone (PEPZ), and benzonitrile (BNPZ) as an electron acceptor was synthesized. Their photophysical properties were investigated in solvents of different polarities by absorption and emission techniques. These studies clearly reveals the existence of an intramolecular charge transfer (ICT) excited state in the latter four compounds. The solvent dependent Stokes shift values were analyzed by the modified Lippert-Mataga equation to obtain the excited state dipole moment values. The large excited state dipole moment suggests that the full electron transfer takes place in the A-D systems. The obtained values of redox potentials indicate that both subunits of all the A-D molecules studied interact very weakly in the ground states. The results obtained from the analysis of the CT fluorescence spectra confirm that the small conformational changes accompanying excited state charge transfer, the twist angle between the donor and acceptor moieties in the excited (CT)-C-1 state seems to be similar to that in the ground state.