The strengthening of the hydrogen bonding (H-bond) network as well as transition from the tetrahedral-like water network to the zigzag chain structure of alcohol upon increasing the alcohol concentration in ethanol-water and tertiary butanol (TBA) - water mixtures have been studied by using both steady state and time resolved spectroscopy. Absorption and emission characteristics of coumarin 153 (C153), a widely used non-reactive solvation probe, have been monitored to investigate the structural transition in these binary mixtures. The effects of the hydrogen bond (H-bond) network with alcohol concentration are revealed by a minimum in the peak frequency of the absorption spectrum of C153 which occur at alcohol mole fraction ∼ 0.10 for water-ethanol and at ∼ 0.04 for water-TBA mixtures. These are the mole fractions around which several thermodynamic properties of these mixtures show anomalous change due to the enhancement of H-bonding network. While the strengthening of H-bond network is revealed by the absorption spectra, the emission characteristics show the typical non-ideal alcohol mole fraction dependence at all concentrations. The time resolved anisotropy decay of C153 has been found to be bi-exponential at all alcohol mole fractions. The sharp change in slopes of average rotational correlation time with alcohol mole fraction indicates the structural transition in the environment around the rotating solute. The changes in slopes occur at mole fraction ∼ 0.10 for TBA-water and at ∼ 0.2 for ethanol-water mixtures, which are believed to reflect alcohol mole fraction induced structural changes in these alcohol-water binary mixtures.

Excited state intramolecular charge transfer reaction of 4-(1-azetidinyl) benzonitrile (P4C) in deuterated and normal methanol, ethanol and acetonitrile has been studied in order to investigate the solvent isotope effects on reaction rates and yields. These quantities (reaction rates and yields) along with several other properties such as quantum yield and radiative rates have been found to be insensitive to the solvent isotope substitution in all these solvents. The origin of the solvent isotope insensitivity of the reaction is discussed and correlated with the observed slowing down of the solvation dynamics upon isotope substitution.

An intramolecular charge transfer (ICT) molecule with an extra hetero atom in its donor moiety has been synthesized in order to investigate how ICT reaction is affected by hetero atom replacement. Photo-physical and photo-dynamical properties of this molecule, 4-(morpholenyl)benzonitrile (M6C), have been studied in 20 different solvents. The correlation between the reaction driving force ($-\Delta G_r$) and activation barrier ($\Delta G$^#) has been explored in order to understand the solvent effects (static and dynamic) on the photo-excited ICT reaction in this molecule. A Kramer’s model analysis of the experimentally observed reaction rate constants indicates a solvent-averaged activation barrier of $\sim 4 k_BT$ in the absence of solvent dynamical control. The reaction in M6C is therefore not a barrier-less reaction but close to the limit where conventional kinetics might break down.

Steady state and time resolved fluorescence emission spectroscopy have been employed to investigate the effects of solvent confinement and electrolyte concentration on excited state intramolecular charge transfer (ICT) reaction in 4-(1-pyrrolidinyl) benzonitrile (P5C), 4-(1-piperidinyl) benzonitrile (P6C), and 4-(1-morpholenyl) benzonitrile (M6C) in AOT/n-heptane/acetonitrile and AOT/n-heptane/methanol reverse micelles. Dramatic confinement effects have been revealed via a huge reduction (factor ranging between 100 and 20) over bulk values of both equilibrium and reaction rate constants. A strong dependence on the size of the confinement ($W_s$) of these quantities has also been observed. $W_s$ dependent average static dielectric constant, viscosity and solvation time-scale have been determined. Estimated dielectric constants for confined methanol and acetonitrile show a decrease from the respective bulk values by a factor of 3-5 and viscosities increased by a factor of 2 at the highest $W_s$ considered. Addition of electrolyte at $W_s = 5$ for acetonitrile is found to produce a linear increase of confined solvent viscosity but leads to a non-monotonic electrolyte concentration dependence of average solvation time. Reaction rate constant is found to decrease linearly with electrolyte concentration for P5C and P6C but non-monotonically for M6C, the highest decrease for all the molecules being ∼ 20% over the value in the absence of added electrolyte in the solvent pool. The observed huge reduction in reaction rate constant is attributed to the effects of decreased solution polarity, enhanced viscosity and slowed-down solvent reorganization of the solvent under confinement in these non-aqueous reverse micelles.

Effects of acid concentration on excited state intramolecular charge transfer reaction of 4-(azetidinyl) benzonitrile (P4C) in aprotic (acetonitrile and ethyl acetate) and protic (ethanol) solvents have been studied by means of steady state absorption and fluorescence, and time resolved fluorescence spectroscopic techniques. While absorption and fluorescence bands of P4C have been found to be shifted towards higher energy with increasing acid concentration in acetonitrile and ethyl acetate, no significant dependence has been observed in ethanolic solutions. Reaction rate becomes increasingly slower with acid concentration in acetonitrile and ethyl acetate. In contrast, acid in ethanolic solutions does not produce such an effect on reaction rate. Time-dependent density functional theory calculations have been performed to understand the observed spectroscopic results.