Demonstration of solute-specific synergism in binary solvents

Abstract

The structure and solvation behaviour of binary liquid mixtures of Methanol (MeOH) and N, N-Dimethylformamide (DMF) are explored by ascertaining their intermolecular interactions with either Rhodamine-B (RhB) or Rhodamine101 (Rh101) dye through steady-state absorption, emission, and two-photon induced fluorescence. Specifically, in the present investigation, we examine the strong synergistic solvation observed for the combinations of hydrogen bond donating (MeOH) and accepting (DMF) solvent pairs. Solvatochromism causes the solvatochromic probe molecules to sense increased polarity compared to their bulk counterparts. The origin of synergism was explained in terms of solute-solvent and solvent-solvent interactions in binary solvent mixtures interactions, as evidenced by probe dependence. The solvation behaviour of the Methanol and DMF binary solvent mixture shows strong probe dependence, with Rh101 showing synergism while RhB does not.