Time-resolved study of intramolecular charge transfer fluorescence in 1,2,3,4-tetrachloro-11H-isoindolo-[2, 1-a]-benzimidazol-11-one

Fluorescent properties of 1,2,3,4-tetrachloro-11H-isoindolo-[2,1-a]-benzimidazol-11-one (TCIB) in various organic solutions are described. Detailed investigation of the fluorescence from the solutions revealed that it was ascribable to the electronic transition from the lowest singlet excited state of an isolated molecule to its ground state, though the fluorescence spectrum was broad and structureless and the Stokes’ shift was about 1 eV. The absorption peak of TCIB was relatively insensitive to change in solvent polarity, whereas its fluorescence peak shifted to the red with an increase in the polarity. This finding suggests that the dipole moment of the molecule in the ground state is almost zero, and that the excited state has a non-zero dipole moment, which coincides with the predicted semiempirical molecular orbital calculation. Fluorescence quantum efficiency decreased with increase of solvent polarity. The efficiency was reduced by a factor of 39 in going from n-hexane solution to acetonitrile solution. The radiative rate constant also decreased with increase of solvent polarity. However, its reduction was very moderate; the reduction factor was only 2.5 for acetonitrile solution as compared with n-hexane solution. This finding indicates that the emitting state of the title compound is influenced by a solvent-dependent non-radiative mechanism, for which solvent-sensitive intersystem-crossing deactivation is tentatively proposed.