Polar substituents and the luminescence of organic compounds

Abstract

An hypothesis is presented in which the interaction of inductive effects on the π-electron system of a complex molecule is interpreted as a shift in the potential energy of the ground and excited states. The model allows the effect of polar substituents on various luminescence processes to be described. It is predicted that the rate constant and the activation energy of radiationless deactivation of the first excited singlet state, as well as the energy of the O–O phosphorescence band, will be correlated by Taft σ* substituent constants.