Optical and time-resolved EPR studies of the excited states of azastilbenes and their protonated cations

The effects of protonation on the excited states oftrans-3-styrylpyridine (StP) andtrans-4,4′-dipyridylethylene (DPE) have been studied through measurements of the time-resolved electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR), ultraviolet absorption, and fluorescence spectra in methanol-water mixtures at 77 K. The assignment of the transient EPR signals was carried out with the aid of the stretched poly(vinyl alcohol) films method. From the analysis of these spectra it is concluded that the single protonation appears to have little effect on the zero-field splitting parameters and the anisotropy in the sublevel populating rates of the lowest excited triplet (T₁) states of StP and DPE. However, the decay rate constants of the fluorescent states decrease and fluorescence quantum yields increase on single protonation. These experimental results suggest that the single protonation causes a decrease in the intersystem crossing (ISC) rates for the three T₁ sublevels. These results are explained in terms of the vibronic mixing between the¹nπ* and¹ππ* states in the lowest excited singlet state. The assignment of StP to the specified conformer was carried out through the analysis of the anisotropic ISC processes.