Unusual luminescence characteristics of aminobiphenyls

Analysis of fluorescence solvatochromic shifts of ortho, meta and para aminobiphenyls reveals that the change in dipolemoment of m-aminobiphenyl on excitation is more when compared to other isomers. This change is due to the resonance interaction of unsubstituted phenyl ring with -NH2 group at meta position in the excited singlet state. The fluorimetric titration curves of three aminobiphenyls are found to be different from each other. The stretched sigmoidal curves obtained for m-aminobiphenyl indicates that the rates of proton transfer in S1 state are comparable to the rates of fluorescence.