Nonradiative deactivation of excited hemicyanines studied with submolecular spatial resolution by time-resolved surface second harmonic generation at liquid-liquid interfaces

The excited-state dynamics of aminostilbazolium dyes is known to be dominated by nonradiative deactivation through large-amplitude motion. In order to identify the coordinate(s) responsible for this process, the excited-state lifetimes of two dialkylaminostyryl-methylpyridinium iodides have been measured at liquid-liquid interfaces using time-resolved surface second harmonic generation. We found that the decay time of the excited-states of both compounds was increasing with the viscosity of the apolar phase, consisting of n-alkanes of varying length, but was unaffected by that of the polar phase, made of water/glycerol mixtures. This indicates that the nonradiative deactivation is associated with the twist of the dialkylaniline group, which is located in the apolar part of the molecule.