Excited-state dipole moments of some hydroxycoumarin dyes using an efficient solvatochromic method based on the solvent polarity parameter, EN(T)

Excited-state dipole moments of some hydroxycoumarins, extensively used as laser dyes, have been determined using the solvatochromic method based on the microscopic solvent polarity parameter EN(T). Agreement between experimental and Austin model 1 (AM 1) calculated dipole moment changes has been found to be close in most of the cases. Our results are expected to be quite reliable in view of the fact that the correlation of the solvatochromic Stokes shifts is superior to that obtained using bulk solvent polarity functions. The dipole moments in the excited state, for all the molecules investigated, are higher than the corresponding values in the ground state. The increase in dipole moment upon excitation has been explained in terms of the nature of emitting state and resonance structure.