Influence of the Attachment of Chromophores to a Polymer Chain on Their Twisted Intramolecular Charge-Transfer State in Dilute Solution

Determination of ground and excited state dipole moments of 4,5'-diamino[1,1':3',1''-terphenyl]-4',6'-dicarbonitrile using solvatochromic method and quantum-chemical calculations

Electronic absorption and fluorescence spectra of 4,5'-diamino[1,1':3',1''-terphenyl]-4',6'-dicarbonitrile (1) were recorded at room temperature in several solvents of different polarity. The results of spectroscopic measurements are analyzed using the theory of solvatochromism, based on a dielectric continuum description of the solvent and the classical Onsager cavity model. The difference in the excited and ground state dipole moments (mu(e)-mu(g)) of the molecule under study was estimated using methods applied by Bayliss, Ooshika, McRae, Lippert, Mataga, Bakhshiev and Kawski. Finally, the influence of polarizability on the determined change of the dipole moment was discussed. Austin model 1 (AM1) semiempirical molecular calculations were carried out to estimate the ground state dipole moment.

PRODAN-conjugated DNA: synthesis and photochemical properties

A solvatochromic fluorophore, PRODAN, has been used as a microenvironment-sensitive reporter. Based on the chemistry of PRODAN, we designed and synthesized four novel fluorescent nucleosides, PDNX (X = U, C, A, and G), to which a PRODAN fluorophore was attached at pyrimidine C5 or purine C8. The fluorescent nucleosides sensitively varied the Stokes shift values depending on the orientational polarizability of the solvent. The PDNX incorporated into DNA also changed the Stokes shift values depending on the DNA structure. In particular, the excitation spectrum of the PDNX-containing duplex shifted to a longer wavelength and gave a smaller Stokes shift value when the base opposite PDNX could form a Watson-Crick base pair with PDNX. A lower energy excitation of PDNX-containing DNA resulted in a strong fluorescence emission selective to the Watson-Crick pairing base. This unique photochemical character was applicable to the efficient typing of single-nucleotide polymorphisms of genes.

The red-edge effects: 30 years of exploration

In 1970, three laboratories independently made a discovery that, for aromatic fluorophores embedded into different rigid and highly viscous media, the spectroscopic properties do not conform to classical rules. The fluorescence spectra can depend on excitation wavelength, and the excited-state energy transfer, if present, fails at the "red" excitation edge. These red-edge effects were related to the existence of excited-state distribution of fluorophores on their interaction energy with the environment and the slow rate of dielectric relaxation of this environment. In these conditions the site-selection can be provided by variation of the energy of illuminating light quanta, and the behaviour of selected species can be followed as a function of time and other variables. These observations found extensive application in different areas of research: colloid and polymer science, molecular biophysics, photochemistry and photobiology. In particular, they led to the development of very productive methods of studying the dynamics of dielectric relaxations in protein and membranes, using the tryptophan emission and the emission of a variety of probes. These studies were extended to the time domain with the observation of new site-selective effects in emission intensity and anisotropy decays. They stimulated the emergence and development of cryogenic energy-selective and single-molecular techniques that became valuable tools in their own right in chemistry and biophysics research. Site-selection effects were discovered for electron-transfer and proton-transfer reactions if they depended on the dynamics of the environment. This review is focused on the progress in the field of red-edge effects, their applications and prospects.