Cryogenic studies, site selectivity and discrete fluorescence in salicylic acid dimer

Cryogenic effects (10–293 K) on the photophysics of salicylic acid (SA) dimer have been using steady state and time-resolved spectroscopic techniques. SA dimer shows two emissions at approximately 390 nm (dimer, D) and approximately 430 nm (tautomer, T), formed by cyclic double proton transfer plus fast excited state intramolecular proton transfer (ESIPT), at low temperatures; a vibrational structure also develops which is due to C = O and OH stretches. On red edge excitation (REE), only the dimer-type (UV) emission is observed, which shifts with excitation energy resembling emission due to site selectivity. Due to the asymmetry of the double potential energy curves of D and T, all dimers can be trapped in the D minimum. The UV emission of the dimer is accompanied by the Stokes' shifted tautomer emission on excitation at 1050 cm⁻¹ higher than the (0,0) band of D, which is interpreted as the barrier height of the double potential energy curves of D and T. Time-resolved studies at various temperatures have helped to clarify the photophysics of crystalline SA.