Revisiting the photophysical properties and excited singlet-state dipole moments of several coumarin derivatives.

The solvent effects on the electronic absorption and fluorescence emission spectra of several coumarins derivatives, containing amino, N,N-dimethyl-amino, N,N-diethyl-amino, hydroxyl, methyl, carboxyl, or halogen substituents at the positions 7, 4, or 3, were investigated in eight solvents with various polarities. The first excited singlet-state dipole moments of these coumarins were determined by various solvatochromic methods, using the theoretical ground-state dipole moments which were calculated by the AM1 method. The first excited singlet-state dipole moment values were obtained by the Bakhshiev, Kawski–Chamma–Viallet, Lippert–Mataga, and Reichardt–Dimroth equations, and were compared to the ground-state dipole moments. In all cases, the dipole moments were found to be higher in the excited singlet-state than in the ground state because of the different electron densities in both states. The red-shifts of the absorption and fluorescence emission bands, observed for most compounds upon increasing the solvent polarity, indicated that the electronic transitions were of π–π* nature.