Effect of intermolecular hydrogen bonding and proton transfer on fluorescence of salicylic acid

Effects of intermolecular interactions, in particular the influence of intermolecular hydrogen bonds formed by salicylic acid (SA) as a proton donor with proton acceptors of different strength, on fluorescence spectra of SA in non-aqueous solutions have been investigated. Infrared spectra of studied systems have been analyzed in order to elucidate the ground state structure of the complexes formed. It has been found that at the room temperature in dilute solutions in non-polar or slightly polar aprotic solvents, where the SA molecule is not involved in intermolecular hydrogen bonding, the position of the main (blue) fluorescence component is determined by the excited state intramolecular proton transfer (ESIPT) in the lowest singlet excited state S1. With increasing proton acceptor ability of the environment, when formation of weak or middle strength intermolecular H-bonds is possible, the emission band shifts gradually to lower frequency, the quantum yield falls and poorly resolved doublet structure becomes more pronounced, especially in the solvents containing heavy bromine atoms. As a possible reason for these effects, coupling between the S1 and closely lying triplet term is considered. With the strongest proton acceptors like aliphatic amines, intermolecular proton transfer with ionic pair formation in the ground state and double (intra- and intermolecular) proton transfer in the excited state take place, resulting in a blue shift of the emission band. Similar emission is typical for the SA anion in aqueous solutions. The pKa value of SA in S1 state has been found to be 3.1. Such a small value can be explained taking into account the ESIPT reaction following the excitation. The SA complex with pyridine exhibits emission spectrum containing both molecular-like and anion-like bands with relative intensities strongly dependent on the temperature and solvent properties. The most probable origin of this dual emission is the molecular-ionic tautomerism caused by the existence of two potential minima and reversible intermolecular proton transfer in the excited state.