Study of the preferential solvation of some betaine dyes in binary solvent mixtures

The preferential solvation (PS) in mixed binary solvents, e.g. dichloromethane/acetonitrile, dichloromethane/methanol, acetonitrile/water has been studied by monitoring the charge transfer band of some betaine dyes. Since PS accounts for dielectric as well as specific interactions while dielectric enrichment only for the former, it was shown that in the case of dichloromethane/methanol, hydrogen bonding precedes dielectric enrichment whereas in the case of acetonitrile/water the inverse is true.