Excited State Proton Transfer from Acidic Alcohols to a Quinoline Photobase Can Be Solvated by Non-Acidic Alcohol Solvents.

Photobases are a type of molecule that become more basic upon photoexcitation and can therefore be used to control proton transfer reactions with light. The solvation requirements for excited state proton transfer (ESPT) in photobase systems is poorly understood, which limits their applicability. Here, we investigate the solvation of the ESPT reaction using 5-methoxyquinoline (MeOQ), a well-studied photobase with an excited state p (p) of approximately 15.