Photophysical
studies have been carried out to explore the aggregation behavior of
coumarin-153 (C153) dye in polar organic solvents of both aprotic and
protic nature, namely acetonitrile (ACN) and ethanol (EtOH). No unusual
behavior is observed in aprotic ACN solvent, suggesting only themonomers
of the dye as the single emitting species in the solution. In protic
EtOH solvent, however, the dye shows the presence of multiple emitting
species in the solution. The concentration-, temperature- and
wavelength-dependent changes in the fluorescence decays, and the
time-resolved emission spectra (TRES) and area-normalized emission
spectra (TRANES) suggest the coexistence of dye aggregates along with
the dye monomers in the EtOH solution. Observed results indicate that
the emission spectra of the aggregates are substantially blueshifted
compared to the spectra of the monomers, suggesting the H-aggregation of
the dye in the present cases. Time-resolved fluorescence anisotropy,
ultrafast fluorescence up-conversion measurements and scanning electron
microscopy studies support the aggregation of the dye in EtOH solution.
Strong dipole−dipole interaction is supposedly responsible for the
aggregation of C153 dye (dipole moment ~6.4 D) and the polar protic
solvent EtOH apparently stabilizes the aggregates through solute−solvent
hydrogen bonding interaction, which is not possible in aprotic ACN
solvent. This is further supported by the time-resolved fluorescence
results in a strongly hydrogen bond donating solvent,
2,2,2-trifluoroethanol. Aggregation of C153 dye observed in the present
study in polar protic organic solvent is an intriguing finding, as the
dye is widely used as a fluorescent probe for various photochemical
studies, where overlooking such aggregation will definitely mislead the observed results.