Excited and ground state conformations of p-dimethylamino-benzaldehyde and p-dimethylaminoacetophenone

p-dimethylaminobenzaldehyde (DMABA) and p-dimethylaminoacetophenone (DMAA) were investigated in nonpolar and polar protic and aprotic solvents over a wide temperature range. The sequence of the lower lying excited states was established. The temperature dependence of the fluorescence yields was interpreted within the irreversible reaction kinetics scheme b¹→TICT (twisted internal charge transfer) state. The activation energies and the rate constants were evaluated. Differences between the low-temperature fluorescence or phosphorescence excitation spectra and the absorption spectrum were found to be due to the existence of different rotamers in the ground state. Quantum chemical (INDO) calculations of the energies of electronic transitions, oscillator strengths and dipole moments were performed for flat and twisted conformations of DMABA.