Photophysical properties of pyridinium salts derived from purine bases

Abstract

The absorption spectra, fluorescence spectra, fluorescence lifetimes, fluorescence quenching, phosphorescence spectra, phosphorescence lifetimes, and picosecond transient absorption spectra of several purinyl-pyridinium salts have been measured in several solvents at room temperature and in ethanol glasses at 77 K. It is concluded that the previously observed photochemical transformation of N-[9-(2′,3′,5′-tri-O-acetyl-β-D-ribofuranosyl)purin-6-yl]pyridinium chloride 1 into the highly fluorescent tri-O-acetylluminarosine 6 occurs via an excited triplet state. It is also shown that intersystem crossing in purinyl-pyridinium salts is induced by an intermolecular charge-transfer interaction with the counter ions. Keywords: purinyl-pyridinium salts, fluorescence, phosphorescence.