Proton Transfer Dynamics in the Aprotic Proton Accepting Solvent 1-Methylimidazole.

The dynamics of proton transfer to the aprotic solvent 1-methylimidazole (MeIm, proton acceptor) from the photoacid 8-hydroxypyrene-1,3,6-trisulfonic acid trisodium salt (HPTS) was investigated using fast fluorescence measurements. The closely related molecule, 8-methoxypyrene-1,3,6-trisulfonic acid trisodium salt (MPTS), which is not a photoacid, was also studied for comparison. Following optical excitation, the wavelength-dependent population dynamics of HPTS in MeIm resulting from the deprotonation process were collected over the entire fluorescence emission window. Analysis of the time-dependent fluorescence spectra revealed four distinct fluorescence bands that appear and decay on different time scales. We label these four states as protonated (P), associated I (A), associated II (A), and deprotonated (D). We find that the simple kinetic scheme of P → A → A → D is not consistent with the data. Instead, the kinetic scheme that describes the data has P decaying into A, which mainly goes on to deprotonation (D), but A can also feed into A. A can return to A or decay to the ground state, but does not deprotonate within experimental error. Quantum chemistry and excited state QM/MM Born-Oppenheimer molecular dynamics simulations indicate that A and A are two H-bonding conformations of MeIm to the HPTS hydroxyl, axial, and equatorial, respectively.