Spectral and Photophysical Properties of Thioxanthone in Protic and Aprotic Solvents: The Role of Hydrogen Bonds in S1-Thioxanthone Deactivation

Spectral and photophysical properties of thioxanthone (9H-thioxanthen-9-one, TX) were determined in a few protic solvents (H2O, D2O, hexafluoro-2-propanol) and compared with those in aprotic solvents. On the basis of the time-resolved and steady-state emission measurements and available literature data, it has been shown that the dominant S1-TX deactivation process in protic solvents is the formation of the S1-complex. The important modes of deactivation of the S1-complex are fluorescence (phiF approximately 0.4-0.5) and intersystem crossing to the T1 state. The S1-complex-->S0 internal conversion plays, at most, an insignificant role in S1-complex deactivation, which is evidenced by the absence of an isotope effect of protic solvents on the lifetime and quantum yield of fluorescence.

Solvent influence on the photophysical properties of 4-methoxy-N-methyl-1,8-naphthalimide

4-Methoxy-N-methyl-1,8-naphthalimide (1) exhibits considerable solvatochromism and its UV-vis spectral properties have been studied in several polar/non-polar and protic/aprotic solvents, as well as in ethanol-water mixtures. The results reveal a strong influence of the solvent's polarity and its hydrogen-bond donor (HBD) capability on the photophysical properties of 1. For binary ethanol/water mixtures, preferential solvation models describe the band shifts in the probe's visible absorption spectrum well, but they fail to describe the corresponding shifts of the emission maxima. Pseudolinear approximations between solvent composition and molecule's transition energies, E(T), can be used to study the composition of ethanol-water mixtures, simplifying the mathematical treatment for eventual analytical applications.

Solvent polarity and pH effects on the spectroscopic properties of neutral red: application to lysosomal microenvironment probing in living cells

Neutral red is a lysosomal probe and a biological pH indicator. In aqueous solutions, the protonated (NRH) and neutral (NR) forms of monomeric neutral red exhibit distinct absorption maxima (535 and 450 nm, respectively) but have the same fluorescence with a maximum at 637 nm and a quantum yield of 0.02. The similarity of the fluorescence spectra at acidic and basic pH suggests deprotonation of cationic species in the first singlet excited state. The NR fluorescence strongly depends on the solvent polarity as shown by addition of increasing amounts of water to pure dioxane, which gradually shifts the fluorescence maximum from 540 nm in pure dioxane to 637 nm in water. The fluorescence quantum yield increases from 0.17 in dioxane to 0.3 upon addition of 7% water and then decreases, reaching 0.02 in pure water. Immediately after incubation of human skin fibroblasts with neutral red, excitation with 435 nm light produces a fluorescence whose maximum is recorded at 575 nm. This fluorescence is located in the perinuclear region and originates from large fluorescent intracytoplasmic spots, suggesting staining of the endoplasmic reticulum-Golgi complex. At longer times, this fluorescence is shifted to 606 nm, suggesting slow diffusion of the lysosomotropic dye toward the more hydrated and acidic interior of lysosomes. Addition of a lysosomotropic detergent to cells previously incubated with neutral red shifts the fluorescence to the blue. Thus, in complex biological systems, this probe cannot be a good pH indicator but is a very sensitive probe of lysosomal microenvironments.